Tali-Path
by Vindicator Vagabond
Summary: A requested story. Tali'Zorah was not sure how she felt about her Commander during their fight against Saren, but when she made up her mind, he was already gone. After two years of that trauma keeping her couped up in the Flotilla, she finally decides to take on a mission. And who should appear but John Shepard? Covers ME2.
1. Prologue

He was there. Fighting, as usual. Fighting tooth and nail against hordes of unholy monstrosities without so much as batting an eye. He shot, kicked, punched, and slashed his way through the monsters as they came at him. Geth, krogan, indoctrinated soldiers of every species; he stood fast and cut them down. She knew that only one man was capable of this kind of unwavering resolve and battle prowess: John Shepard.

When the flames came, she tried to come to his aid, to help him.

_Useless_.

She tried to run forward, but it felt like she was light years away. She watched in horror as her hero, her Commander, was engulfed in flames. He screamed as death finally took hold of him.

_Pathetic_.

Shepard saw her, and as his face burned away, the wounds cauterizing as the fire licked at the blood, he shouted at her as his eyes glazed over, "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

_Disgusting_.

…

Tali awoke, shooting upright in her cot with a terrified gasp. It took her a moment to fully realize it had all been another nightmare. She slowly drew her legs to her chest, and began to sob quietly. She had lost him so long ago, almost two years now, but even after so much time, she had just recently gotten over Shepard's death. "I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm so sorry." She had never told him.

She had never told him how she felt, how when she had first met him in that alley, she had just watched in awe as Shepard vaulted over the crates she had been using as cover, firing his sidearm with deadly precision. He had slid beneath the turian thug, placing a shot in his crotch that drilled right up through the top of his head. Flipping onto his feet, Shepard delivered a powerful kick to the head of the first salarian, shattering his helmet and sending him to the ground. He had then shot the fallen thug in the head while simultaneously throwing his knife into the neck of the other, all in one fluid motion.

She had never told him what she thought of him, how as with each passing day aboard the Normandy, Tali had grown more comfortable with the idea of working with a human crew thanks to him. Everyone was nice to her, and anyone who was mean got a stern telling off and a strong punch to the gut. She had come to admire his ability to control any situation as automatically as waking up in the morning, and led his people as easily as eating his breakfast.

She had never told him that she loved him. For the longest time, she had been unsure, but after the Battle for the Citadel, she was sure of it. But she had kept silent. After all, she had to return to the flotilla and complete her pilgrimage, but she would see him again, right? Then she had stayed on the flotilla, knowing that after his legacy of heroism, Shepard could have anyone he wanted. Why would he choose some little quarian girl he had rescued in a back alley?

She had never told him, and now she wished she had. She had never told him, and now she never could.

Tali got up from her cot, suppressing her tears like she had done almost every day for the past two years. She was heading out to Freedom's Progress soon with a team of marines. Their mission was to locate and retrieve a quarian by the name of Veetor'Nara, who had gone silent recently.

"Shepard would love this mission," Tali muttered ruefully to herself, "'A simple rescue mission,' he'd probably say." She grimaced as she realized he would also have definitely made a joke about her own rescue and "rescuing a second quarian" or something along those lines. Keelah, how she missed him.

Tali collected her equipment, and paused when her hand hovered over her shotgun. A Katana, Shepard had given her that gun as a gift. It even had her name engraved on the side, just to reinforce the fact that it was a gift for her. And a reminder of her lost Commander. She suffered a flashback to the day Shepard had given it to her. Tali had been working in Engineering as usual, when she got a call from Shepard to report to his quarters with no context. She had been terrified that she had done something wrong, and that she would be punished.

She had been overjoyed to discover her Commander smiling away as he finished hand-engraving her name into a brand new shotgun. He had even cracked a joke, "_I didn't expect you to get up here so quickly! Should I be worried about the drive core due to a half-finished diagnostic because of my interruption?_" She had laughed harder then than she ever had in her life. In part due to the joke, in part due to the absolute reversal of her expectations.

Back in the present, Tali grabbed the gun reluctantly, knowing that she would need it. The only other weapon that she owned was a Predator hand cannon, and requisitioning another shotgun would take far too long. Besides, any other shotgun she could get her hands on here would be much weaker. The ride that followed was long and unpleasant, at least for her. While she waited for any extra information to come her way, Tali daydreamed. She dreamed about a much happier time, back on the Normandy. She did this often.

She remembered how whenever she would walk about the ship, most of the male crewmates would watch her. At first, she had been unable to figure out why, theorizing that it was just because they had never seen a quarian before. But when the staring continued, Tali had found herself in Shepard's quarters, asking him. He was the only human aboard whom she felt comfortable asking.

Shepard had laughed at the question. "_What's_ _so funny__?_" she had asked.

"_Tali,_" Shepard had managed to control his laughter, "_They're looking at your rear! Lot's of human guys can't help but look!_"

"_Oh yeah?_" She had responded, embarrassed, "_What about you?_"

Shepard had just smiled, "_Oh, you know, I guess I'm just too distracted by trying to see your face._"

Tali's daydreaming was interrupted by Prazza, who was discussing mission information. "This is a human colony," he was saying, "And Tali'Zorah has the most experience with humans. Tali, is there anything you can tell us about what we might find?"

Tali snapped out of her stupor and thought for a moment, "Well, humans can be rather unpredictable if you don't know them." She struggled to describe any human other than Shepard, who would most certainly not be on Freedom's Progress. Finally, she gave up, "You know what? Maybe it's just best if I handle interactions. It's impossible to teach everything you would need to know without real experience. Humans are complicated."

As they landed at the colony, however, this appeared to be a moot point; the entire place was devoid of life. Tali knew that it went without saying, something bad had happened here. As the team began to work their way into the compound, one of the marines shouted. Tali turned to see a group of four bipedal robots walking steadily toward them. At first, Tali did not know what to think of this discovery. But when the mechs started shooting at the marines, she knew exactly what to think.

The team scattered, scrambling for cover. Tali had the most combat experience, and while the others moved in a somewhat panicked fashion, Tali moved instinctively to the guard rail, a solid panel that she guessed would be able to stop incoming small arms fire. Using a new program on her omni-tool, she released a small holographic combat drone that went to attack and distract the mechs. Gritting her teeth, Tali vaulted over the railing, firing her sidearm. Using her small frame to her advantage, she slid between the legs of the lead mech, firing her shotgun, blasting the torso of the robot into oblivion. She used a preset function on her omni-tool to hack the second mech, making it attack the others, then rolled over onto her stomach, picked herself up, and watched with satisfaction as her combat drone and hacked mech fought the remaining two hostiles. The marine squad finally got their bearings, opening fire on the three machines.

When the mechs were destroyed, Tali gave the team a smug look, though she knew they couldn't see it. They regrouped with her, and one asked, "Where did you learn to do that!?"

Tali shrugged, "I may not be Commander Shepard, but serving under him taught me quite a lot." While it pained her inwardly to say his name, it made her feel strangely good. She was no Shepard, to be sure, but she was sure that if he were there then, he would be proud. It felt almost as if she was finally coming to terms with her loss. Strange that combat was what she had needed.

They made their way further into the colony, meeting similar resistance every step of the way. When the flying mechs appeared, Tali knew they were in trouble. At her orders, the team took shelter in a nearby building. Or, at least, they tried to; the door was locked. Tail worked quickly, hacking her way through the door.

"Hurry up!" Prazza shouted at her, firing at the seemingly endless storm of mechs along with the rest of the squad.

"You want to trade jobs, Prazza!?" Tali shouted back, surprised at her own attitude, "I didn't think so!" Maybe Shepard had rubbed off on her more than she had realized. She had not seen combat for nearly two years, so she didn't find it surprising that she was only recognizing this now. The lock turned green, and the door hissed open. "Get inside!" Tali shouted, sending deadly blasts from her shotgun into the air at the flying drones to cover the marines.

When everyone was inside, Tali locked the door once again by frying the circuit board. Only a skilled individual would be able to get through. More importantly, the mechs could not. Tali turned to the room, observing the rest of the team.

"Well," she said dryly, "this could have gone better."

"Better!?" Prazza exploded, hotheaded as always, "This mission just went to shit! How are we going to get out of here with those damned machines blocking the way to our ship!?"

Tali did her best to remain calm. What would Shepard do? He always had a plan for these situations. She took a deep breath, "We dig in," Tali said firmly, "Wait for a gap, or maybe another team. This was a human colony, so there's bound to be a team to investigate the absence of its inhabitants. You saw how empty this place is."

"Yeah? And how do we get a human team to help us?"

Tali sighed heavily, "Just... remember what we agreed on, Prazza: let me handle it."

The fiery marine conceded, taking a seat on the couch near the wall. Tali started trying to pull information from the prefab's computer. They would be there a while, might as well make use of the time somehow.

It was almost an hour before the sounds of gunfire reached them from the outside. Everyone tensed slightly, but they knew that they were safe in the prefab. With any luck, the team outside would just pass by, and they could find Veetor after the mechs were dealt with. No one expected the door to open, much less after the sounds of gunfire actually ceased.

The door opened to reveal three humans, wearing what were unmistakably Cerberus colors. Prazza jumped to his feet, drawing his weapon. The humans responded in kind, and soon enough everyone had weapons presented except Tali, who leapt in and pushed Prazza's rifle down. "Prazza!" she scolded, "You said you would let me handle this!"

The two humans in the rear she didn't recognize, and the lead soldier was wearing a helmet that concealed his face. But when he saw her, the lead human seemed to ease, signaling his team to stand down. Did he recognize her from somewhere?

"Who are you?" Tali asked, desiring to know why he seemed to recognize her. The 6'4" human gave a small chuckle, with a voice that sounded shockingly familiar, a voice that she could never misplace. It couldn't be...

"What, Tali," he said as he reached to take off his helmet, "No love for your old Commander?" When the helmet came off, she finally saw his face. It had some strange scars, and he looked unusually tired, but it definitely him, with that unforgettable lopsided smile. Tali couldn't believe her eyes.

"N-no," she stammered, "It-It can't be! Are you..."

"It's really me, Tali," he said warmly, as if he had never died and left her alone for two years, "I'm back."

Tali finally found the one word she had been searching for: "Shepard!?"


	2. Man out of Time

"Shepard!?"

The Commander grinned, "The one and only."

John Shepard stood at a solid six-foot-four, a full eight inches taller than Tali in front of him. Weighing just over two-hundred pounds of bone and muscle, Shepard was nearly a superhuman. He certainly looked the part, a fact of which he was acutely aware.

Tali stared in disbelief, no daring to step closer, and actually taking a reflexive step back. Shepard smiled warmly, raising his hands defensively to show that he had holstered his weapons. He was effectively unarmed.

"Screw this!" The quarian marine Shepard figured was Prazza shouted, levelling his assault rifle at the human, "I don't know who you are, and I don't really care. I know that I don't trust Cerberus, so how about you leave?" He shifted the rifle on his shoulder to emphasize his point.

Miranda and Jacob moved to bring their own weapons to bear, but Shepard motioned for them to hold. He fixed Prazza with a piercing stare, "How about this: You get that gun out of my face, or this gets ugly."

"Draw your weapon, and I'll take your head off!" Prazza shouted, and Shepard detected a hidden trace of panic in the marine's voice. He grinned wickedly, a flicker of fire in his eyes.

"I don't need a gun to take care of you, soldier. Now how about we cut the hostilities and avoid making a mess? I suspect that those mechs we took out on the way in aren't all this place has in store for us, and I would hate to have to lose a good set of eyes before we continue."

Tali pulled Prazza back, and lunged into the Commander to deliver a tight hug. He reciprocated gratefully, raising a protective eyebrow at Prazza. "It's really you," Tali said shakily into his shoulder, turning her head to the side and resting it on him, "No one could ever replicate that kind of attitude."

He chuckled, "It's good to see you too, Tali. Good to see you stayed around, even when I didn't manage to."

She pulled away, smiling beneath her mask, "You always taught us to survive by fighting unconditionally."

Shepard sighed. It _was_ good to see Tali again. In fact, when he had first awoken, his first thought had been about her. He had been afraid that none of his original crew had made it after his death, fearing that they had all gone off and died in battle. But if Tali was still breathing, then he was happy. And it gave him hope that more of the others had survived as well.

"Let's get going," Shepard said, returning to his mission-ready mindset, "If there are any survivors, they aren't going to save themselves."

"Right," Tali agreed, switching to a similar mode, "We should split up to cover more ground."

Shepard cringed at the idea of leaving Tali without his protection, but agreed nonetheless. It didn't take long for something to go wrong, though, as soon after they left the building and started fighting their way down to a large set of doors, Tali alerted him via radio: "Shepard, Prazza and the others ran ahead! I tried to stop them, but he wouldn't listen."

He sighed, pulling a drone out of the air with his biotics and ripping it in half with his hands in order to vent his frustration. "We're at some kind of blast door. Can you get us through?"

A pause, then, "I think so, just give me a minute to-"

Shepard shrugged, "Forget it. I'll open it myself." He stepped back from the large gate, and pushed his biotics to their limit as he barrelled forward, using his powers to move at impossible speed, and at the last second he signaled Miranda and Jacob to throw everything they had at the metal obstacle.

He had timed it perfectly, slamming into the closed door at the exact moment that his team's biotic missiles hit the surface, creating a spot of focused kinetic force and smashing through the metal.

Shepard came stumbling through the man-sized hole he had created, rolling his shoulder. "Damn," he grunted in pain as his head pounded alongside the throbbing in his shoulder, "Okay, maybe next time I should just wait."

"Shepard!" Tali shouted worriedly over the radio, "What was that? Are you alright?"

He winced, "I've been better, but I'm fine. I just… uh… made my own door. My left shoulder is fractured, I think."

"Keelah, I forgot how hardheaded you are."

Shepard laughed, "I used my shoulder, not my head, Tali. I would have broken my neck."

Tali giggled, then abruptly stopped, "Shepard, look out!"

Initially, he was confused by her sudden insistence. "Look out for what?" He asked. Then he heard the sound of heavy, mechanical footfalls, along with shouting and gunfire. The YMIR mech rounded the corner, gunning down the last of the rogue quarian marines with its heavy machine gun. "Ah," Shepard answered his question, "that."

"Take cover!" Jacob shouted as the three of them did just that, diving behind nearby walls and crates. The YMIR spotted them, and immediately opened fire, hammering them with its machine gun and firing its missile launcher in an effort to flush them out of cover. The team was pinned down, and each individual member had only a few moments at a time to sneak off any retaliation.

"How are we going to take down something of that size?" Miranda asked, firing her Predator hand cannon to see that the shots had little effect on the mech's powerful shields.

Shepard sighed, "We shoot it until it goes down." he radioed Tali, "Tali, what's the situation by you?"

"You tell me," came the response from just above him, "we're in the same situation here." He looked up to see her poking her head out of the window above him.

"Hi." He said, grinning. His smile instantly disappeared as Tali suddenly tumbled out of the structure, screaming in pain as the YMIR poured high-caliber rounds into the building. Shepard instinctively caught her, and crouched down, scanning her with his vision to visually assess the damage done. "Shit! Tali, talk to me!"

Tali coughed dryly, and touched her back, "I-I should be fine. The impact knocked me down, but my shields took the brunt of the hit. My suit is intact."

Shepard felt a fire rising in his chest, burning away at his insides. He fought to keep it down. "I didn't ask about your suit, I asked about you!"

Tali giggled, getting to her feet with minimal difficulty, "Shepard, if nothing hit my suit, then nothing hit me. I'm fine."

This did nothing to help Shepard's internal torrent. He had just come back from the dead, and had been lucky enough to find Tali alive and well, and he had come so close to losing her already. None of this would have happened if that damned marine Prazza had just followed orders! Because of that, Tali could have died!

That was enough to finally set him off. Shepard gritted his teeth as he stopped fighting whatever it was that was burning at him. This had never happened before, but he no longer had the capacity to care. He just had the capacity to kill.

Shepard stepped out of cover, leaving his weapons behind, and got the attention of the mech by erupting into a blood-curdling war cry. From his right, Tali saw the Commander's eyes light up in a frankly alarming reddish hue. They were properly glowing. The scars on his face seemed ready to burst into flames.

The YMIR opened fire upon the exposed human, but found that it was firing at empty air. Within Shepard's mind, something clicked with his new biotic implant. He didn't have to think about it, he just… did. He surged forward in a biotic charge, somehow warping space around him to close the gap to the YMIR in an instant. He reappeared just in front of it, and without hesitation dropped into a slide, slipping between the legs of the machine.

Before it could react, Shepard leapt up onto its shoulders, bending the metal beneath his grip as his body and biotics alike were pushed far beyond their limits. Gripping the mech by the shoulder, he reached down and grabbed the machine gun arm. Roaring with fury and a monumental effort, Shepard pulled the arm up to its owner's "face" and gave one last shove to put the muzzle right up against the two red lights there.

Shepard held fast and watched with grim satisfaction as the YMIR's programming was revealed to lack the advanced processes to prevent it from firing at itself in such a situation. The machine gun opened up on its own body, and quickly tore through shields and armor, obliterating the central processor for the huge mech as the head was ripped apart.

But that wasn't enough. Shepard wasn't just out for revenge, he was out for blood. He leapt down to the missile launcher on the opposite side of the now-dead YMIR, and in an instant his knife was in his hand, sharp and ready for use.

He drove the blade down into the armor plating, his berserker's fury giving him the might to carve a hole in the arm, and in doing so create an opening to the payload within. He drew his sidearm, and pointed it right down the hole.

Tali saw this happening, and tried to intervene. "Shepard!" She shouted, "Don't-"

Too late. Normally, John Shepard would never do something so foolish. In his enraged state, however, his ability to reason went out the airlock. He pulled the trigger, and the resulting explosion of the entire payload inside the YMIR's arm sent him flying backwards. His flight was only stopped by a conveniently placed wall.

Tali rushed over, letting the others go retrieve Veetor. Shepard was lying in a heap at the foot of the building, holding his head, moaning to himself as a migraine hammered his head like the YMIR's machine gun.

"What was that supposed to be?" Tali asked sternly, checking him over for injuries.

Shepard opened his eyes to look at her. They were back to their normal ice blue. "I don't know… Miranda said something about psychological changes from my resurrection. I just… ngh, I just couldn't stand the idea of losing you so soon after I had just come back and found you."

Tali hugged him, "Keelah, Shepard, you know I'm harder to get rid of than that. After all, you trained me yourself."

Shepard rested his head against the wall, "Yeah, and I died. I just… when the thought crossed my mind that you might be in danger, I just lost it. Dammit, I really wanted that thing dead!"

"Bosh'tet." She punched him in the shoulder. The left shoulder.

He chuckled, grimacing at the pain that it caused, "I guess I deserve that." He grunted as he staggered to his feet, Tali helping him, "This migraine is… unnatural. Feels like a grenade went off in my skull." He smiled suddenly, and looked down at Tali, "Feels like the YMIR after I was done with it."

Tali sighed, but found herself smiling regardless. She had missed that sense of humor. When the two teams returned with Veetor, who was incredibly shaken, Miranda was actively insisting that he be taken to Cerberus for interrogation. With no further context, not even why his XO wanted the interrogation in the first place, Shepard spoke up.

"He goes with Tali and the other quarians. He gets to go home."

As the two teams were boarding their respective ships, Shepard turned to Tali, who had been helping him walk up until that point. "Veetor had scans on his omni-tool," Tali said before he could speak, "You can have those, and whatever other data he had. Thanks for letting him come with us."

Shepard frowned, "Your not coming? We- no, I could really use you aboard."

Tali shook her head sadly, "Sorry, Shepard, but I can't. I have another mission coming up and I'm not letting someone else go in my place." She leaned in, whispering, "And I still don't trust Cerberus."

Shepard nodded. It was understandable. "Well, try to stay in touch at least, alright?"

Tali cocked her head at him playfully, "Really?"

"What?"

She giggled. God, how he had missed that sound. "'Stay in touch?' That's the best you can do?"

Shepard looked around, exasperated, "What else should I do?"

Tali sent a small packet of data to his omni-tool, "Here's the location of my mission. Maybe you can come pick me up when I'm done. How does that sound?"

He smiled cheerfully, "Better than my plan, for sure."


	3. Preparations

"Commander, are you sure that these are the right coordinates?" Joker asked, "They put us right in the middle of Geth space."

He stood behind the pilot's seat, one hand on the shoulder of the chair. Staring at the console, John Shepard nodded, "I'm sure, Joker. I want you to get us there, then we'll wait for Tali to signal us."

"And what makes you so sure she'll contact us?" Came a familiar voice from behind. Shepard turned to see the welcome face of Garrus Vakarian.

After the mission on Freedom's Progress, the Normandy had set course for Omega to retrieve the mysterious vigilante Archangel. There was a salarian doctor there too, whom they had planned on picking up during the same trip, but after Archangel was revealed to be Shepard's old friend, and the Turian had taken a rocket across the face, they had returned to the Normandy.

After that, Shepard just couldn't bear to wait any longer to head off to retrieve Tali'Zorah from her own mission. She had given him a set of coordinates before they had parted ways, and he had been itching to follow them ever since. Garrus had been filled in on the details after he had woken up from his injuries.

Now, in the pilot's cabin, Shepard smiled at his old friend, "Because this was her idea in the first place. I find it hard to believe that she would tell me to pick her up without figuring out a way to tell me when."

"Alright, I'll get us there, Shepard," Joker said from the pilot's seat, "No telling how long we'll be waiting, though."

He said over his shoulder as he walked away, "I'd rather wait there than wait here, Joker."

Garrus joined him as he walked down to Engineering. Shepard knew that Tali would end up down there, and he wanted to make sure that there would be a spot open and waiting. Kenneth Donnelly and Gabriella Daniels were already there, of course, and they greeted him as he entered.

Shepard ran things loosely around the Normandy. Ken and Gabby had saluted him hastily on the first day, panicking when they realized that their Commander had come to visit them. He had quickly made it clear that, so long as they remembered who was in charge, they didn't have to act so stately when he was around. So when he walked in with Garrus, they just waved and said hello, then went right back to work.

"What about that terminal over there?" Garrus immediately pointed to the terminal opposite the two engineers, "Looks unoccupied to me."

Shepard nodded, moving over to the workstation and checking it over. It looked nearly identical to the one that Ken and Gabby were using. "Garrus," he said thoughtfully, "I'm pretty sure that this thing is meant for two people."

The Turian shrugged, "And?"

"Tali is one person."

Garrus chuckled, "Shepard, in case you've forgotten, 'Tali' is short for 'Tali'Zorah,' as in the same Quarian who worked on the original Normandy and ran out of things to do after two weeks."

Shepard sighed, "I guess you're right."

His friend leaned on the empty workstation, "Shepard, why are we doing this?" He suddenly asked.

He was taken aback, "What, you mean the mission? The mission to save the galaxy fro the Reapers for a second time?"

Garrus laughed, "No, you idiot! Why are we checking a damned terminal in Engineering? I think that you and I both know that Tali could probably just take this thing apart and put it back together in a better configuration if she wanted to. Or if she was bored, even."

Shepard inhaled, "I… God, Garrus, I just really want to get her back on the team. I heard what happened to everyone, and I want to get as many of my people back as I can. Besides, this is a Cerberus ship. _Cerberus!_ I want to make sure she feels welcome here."

Garrus cocked his head to the side, "Oh yeah? And what about me? How come I get no red carpet treatment?"

Shepard sighed, heading back to the elevator with his friend, "Because I know you, Garrus. Not that I don't know Tali," he added quickly, "But I know that nothing these guys can throw at you would ever phase you in a million years. Plus, I already figured out where you're going."

"Oh?"

He led Garrus to the level above, and gestured to the end of the hall, "It's right through here."

The door opened to reveal access to the main gun battery, with a small display terminal showing everything that someone would need to know to perform calibrations. The lighting was bright enough to visually examine the huge turret, but not so bright as to strain one's eyes after prolonged exposure.

Almost immediately, Garrus rushed over to the terminal, looking at the various readings and displays. He then looked to the gun itself, leaning over the railing to look closer. After a moment of just appreciating the station that he was being given, Garrus turned back to him, "Thanks, Shepard. I think that I'll be right at home here."

"Thanks yourself, Garrus. I don't think I'd _ever_ be at home here without you and your Turian wit."

He laughed, "Actually, that 'wit' is exclusive to the Vakarian family. If all Turians had that, we would have hunted the Reapers to extinction by now."

"I rest my case," Shepard said over his shoulder as he left. He headed up to his personal quarters, or "The Loft." He had made sure to check it out when he had taken his original tour of the Normandy SR-2.

The SR-2 was much larger than the SR-1, and as such it held more in store for its crew. Initially, he had been surprised when he found that Miranda Lawson was taking up residence in the room that was his back on the original Normandy. He had been even more surprised to find out that he was given a whole new cabin on the highest level of the ship; a level that had previously not existed.

He entered his cabin and took a deep breath, savoring the moment of serenity and silence. Things had been moving so fast recently, and it felt good to just sit down and relax for a minute. He lowered himself into the seat by his desk, opened his terminal, and started writing a message to an old friend.

"_Hey man, I know it's been a while. Two years of me being dead, to be exact. But through some twist of fate and a few billion credits worth of tech crammed into me, I'm back. I have something that I need to do right now, but maybe we could grab a drink later? -J_"

A few minutes later, he already had a response.

"_Well, I guess the rumors of your return were true then? I figured that wasn't something that people would fake. Are you even sure that you can drink, being a dead man? Last I checked, corpses couldn't do that. -A_"

Shepard laughed, typing, "_Shut up. Last I checked, corpses couldn't send messages either. Plus, all these implants gave me some kind of super liver, I think. I can probably drink you under the table seven times over._"

"_Are you sure about that?_"

Shepard grinned, "_Only one way to find out. See you when I'm done with my mission. -J_"

He then leaned back in his chair, checking the clock. It was almost exactly twelve-o-clock, standard time. Shepard stood up, and moved over to the bed to lie down. All that was left to do now was wait.

* * *

**A/N: Whoa, what's that? Vindicator Vagabond isn't dead? I know; I find it harder to believe than you do!**

**Sorry for the radio silence lately, everyone. I know that I'm not the most popular writer out there, Hell, a lot of people probably hate my work (because it sucks), but I'm not here to be popular. Really, more than zero people are enjoying my stories at all, and it's more than I could ask for. The fact of the matter is that I've just been really tired lately. Not tired of writing, but tired in general.**

**Midterms are really grinding me down, and I just haven't had the energy to write much, or do much of anything but play a few video games. But the semester is coming to a close this week, and I hope I can refocus on this stuff with renewed vigor! I'm also sinking a bit of time into my super-secret project.**

**Work will be slowing down in general from here on out, I think, but know that I am NOT GIVING UP ON THIS. I don't care how long it takes, but I'm going to write this story and write it as well as I can, gosh darn it!**

**In summary: I'm going to pull myself together, maybe get a schedule in order for writing regularly, and no matter what, I'm not abandoning my station.**

**Well, that's enough about my life that you don't want to hear about. What your probably still reading this for is to know why this chapter was just so darn short! Well, I'll tell you. It all started at the beginning of the chapter, when I started writing, then I eventually realized that I didn't want to stretch out this section, because that would be boring. I'm going to try to compensate by making chapter three longer than usual.**


	4. Back in Action

Waiting. Too much waiting. He practiced lifting small objects around the room with his biotics in an effort to pass the time productively. He flicked one of his scale models through the air, watching with mild satisfaction as it appeared to fly across the room. Amusing himself was hard right now, with his mission still on hold.

As he sat in the Loft, playing with his models, John Shepard was unbelievably bored and anxious at the same time. He had been waiting silently in his quarters for twelve hours since getting Garrus settled and sending his messages, and there was little else to do. He was refraining from drinking in order to keep his mind sharp.

After eight hours of restless sleep, he had just sat down at his desk and waited tentatively for any contact from Tali'Zorah. Four hours with nothing to do was a long time, Shepard was finding out.

When the ship's onboard Artificial Intelligence, Edi, spoke to him, he jumped. "Shepard," said the AI's synthetic voice cooly, "I have detected weapons fire on the planet below. It would appear that there is an ongoing battle." Shepard leapt out of his seat before Edi had even finished, and in a flash he had donned his N7 armor and rushed out the door. Gunfire and radio silence were only a combination for trouble.

He went down to the armory, collecting his various armaments. He called Garrus, knowing that he would need someone whom he could trust on this mission. He ran over his weapons checklist. There was his Avenger assault rifle, Predator hand cannon, Katana shotgun, and Incisor sniper rifle, a weapon which Cerberus had been thoughtful enough to provide. While the Mantis delivered far more stopping power, the Incisor boasted a higher magazine capacity and fire rate, not to mention burst-fire, all of which Shepard preferred in a sniper rifle. Long-range engagements were Garrus's thing anyway, and it was the Turian who liked the stopping power of the Mantis.

It was then that the Turian in question appeared in the armory. He saw what Shepard was doing, and nodded silently, moving to gather his own equipment. Shepard and Garrus had gone through Hell and back together during the war against Saren two years ago. They had formed a sense of brotherhood, forged and tested in the fires of battle, the likes of which could not be tainted, let alone broken. Even after the two years of Shepard's absence, they communicated on a level beyond words. They understood each other, had changed to be like each other. Shepard did not need to say anything for his friend to understand what was needed. That, and Garrus wasn't stupid; his Commander had called him to the armory and was actively preparing for combat. That meant a mission.

"So," He said in his usual dry tone, "Still think that waiting here was worth it? We probably could have picked up one or two of the people on your dossiers by now."

Shepard looked up at him, "Absolutely. If we had taken the time to take on another mission, we might not have been here to back them up in time. Something's wrong, Garrus. I know it," He paused, then, "Wait, how did you know about the dossiers? I never told you about that."

Garrus feigned offense, "You wound me, Shepard. Have you forgotten in your time being dead that I used to be a detective? And that I, especially, was spectacularly good at getting into places where I'm not supposed to be?"

Shepard chuckled. Garrus had only changed in that he now had his friend's death to use as ammunition for his humor. "What do you mean, you _were_ good? Garrus, I wouldn't be surprised if you came out of the _womb_ when you weren't supposed to!" They walked to the elevator, and Shepard suddenly became very serious, "Oh, and for the record," he said, slamming a thermal clip into his rifle for emphasis, "Don't go through my private terminal without my permission again, capisce?"

Garrus only smiled, "Sure, even though we both know fully well that there's not a chance in Hell that you could stop me if you tried." He pretended to check his own weapon, shooting his friend a challenging look, "Of course, if you wanted to try settling that with a match…"

Shepard eased up, holstering his Avenger and stepping out of the elevator. The elevators on the new Normandy were much faster than the old one, and he was grateful for that much. "Maybe later. For now, we need to get down to that planet and save Tali."

Garrus nodded, stepping into the shuttle after him, "Agreed. Are you sure you don't want to bring another set of hands along for this, though? Could get pretty tricky down there."

He nodded "He should be coming down shortly."

"Way ahead of you, Commander!" A man's voice called from the shuttle. Jacob Taylor stepped out of the craft, giving the two a crisp salute, "By the sound of it, this mission means a lot to you. I'd hate to keep you waiting for that."

"That kind of attitude is why I chose you for our number three on this one, Jacob," Shepard complimented him cooly.

"I thought that you didn't trust the Cerberus guys with anything." Garrus commented suspiciously.

"I don't," Shepard admitted as the three of them climbed into the shuttle, "But they don't trust _me_ to do this without a full squad. Unlike his friends, Jacob isn't bigoted, self-righteous, or racist as far as I can tell. Oh yeah, and did I mention that he has an extra piece of hardware in his head besides a biotic implant?"

Now Jacob leaned forward, confused and slightly worried, "What's that, Commander?"

Shepard smiled, "It's called a 'moral compass,' Jacob."

The Cerberus Operative leaned back again, "Everyone has one of those."

"The difference is that yours actually works," Garrus spoke before Shepard had a chance. When his friend gave him a look, he shrugged, "Hey, I'm the funny one. Besides, it was obvious that you were leading up to that."

They rode in relative silence to the planet's surface. The shuttle dropped them in the relative shade of a high wall, around which the sun beat down mercilessly. Shepard peered out the viewport to see a large beetle scurry out into the sunlight, only to be painfully fried in the intense heat. His stomach lurched slightly at the sight; not only was it disgusting, but it also proved that it would be dangerous outside of the shade.

The three men jumped out of the shuttle, not wasting any time in moving forward as soon as their boots hit the ground. They stayed out of the light as much as possible, and soon enough they came across a small checkpoint with a terminal inside. Entering through the doorway, Jacob spotted a damaged Geth unit in the corner, and a Quarian log on the terminal. Shepard picked it up and listened to the repeating message.

The log detailed the events before the ground team had landed. "Emergency log entry:" the voice of the nearby dead Quarian spoke, "The Geth are here. I've stayed to buy the others time. Anyone who gets this, find Tali'Zorah. She and the data are all that matters. Keelah se'lai." Shepard crushed the device in his hand, unwilling to accept that Tali was in danger again. Garrus used the terminal to open the gate that was blocking their path up until then.

Shepard punched a hole in the dead Geth unit, ripping out some of the hardware with his hand. He noted that the Geth had not changed much since the fight against Saren when it came to hardware. He had learned where the more valuable internals were from Tali herself, and had invented this new method of extraction to suit his skillset.

With the gravity of the situation now made undeniably clear to him, Shepard marched forward with a determined scowl. Behind him, Garrus and Jacob exchanged worried glances. The plan had been for Shepard to take the lead, with Garrus providing sniper dire and Jacob biotic support, but when the first Geth appeared, Shepard immediately deviated from the accepted strategy, launching himself forward in a biotic charge to meet the enemy head-on, pulling out his assault rifle and cutting into their ranks like a man possessed.

He mowed down two Troopers with frightening efficiency, whipping around when his finely honed senses detected one behind him. He swung his rifle like a bat, sweeping the Hunter's legs out from beneath it as it decloaked. With his opponent on their back, he drove his fist down with a biotically-charged punch, going straight through its torso and hitting the concrete.

From the rear, Garrus emptied his magazine as rapidly as the Mantis could handle, headshotting three Geth units as Jacob threw them into the air with his own biotics, preventing their Commander from being flanked. Garrus shot Jacob a quick grin, appreciating the system that the two had just invented.

Shepard advanced steadily, foregoing any more melee combat. Instead, he just poured rounds into anything that poked its head out, with Garrus and Jacob doing what they could to handle the rest. The Commander now ignored his earlier notion of staying out of the sunlight, fighting wherever the fight came to him. His barriers were occasionally boosted by Jacob, who figured that it was the best approach to keeping Shepard alive.

After only a few minutes of similar massacre, they came across the body of a Quarian Marine with a submachine gun lying nearby. Shepard tossed the weapon to Jacob, knowing that he already had enough weapons, and Jacob needed all the extra firepower that he could get. Garrus inspected the body.

"It's fresh," the Turian stated, "Blood's not anywhere close to dry. Spirits, the body isn't even cold yet." He stood, bowing his head for a moment to honor the fallen soldier. Then the dead man's radio crackled to life.

"OP-1, this is Squad Leader Kal'Reegar, come in, over!" The radio shouted.

Shepard picked up the radio, "Sorry to break it to you, Reegar, but your people are all dead."

"Dammit," Kal muttered harshly, "And who exactly are you?"

Shepard looked ahead to see a few Marines engaged in an intense firefight with more Geth. He spoke into the radio, "I'm Commander Shepard, but more importantly, I'm the guy who's gonna get your ass out of here. Tell Tali'Zorah that she'll have to try a lot harder to get herself killed if she tells me where she's going to do it." With that, he hurled the device at an exposed Geth Trooper, destroying its head even without biotic augment.

The three of them then leapt down from the ledge, just in time to see the Geth Dropship overhead shoot out a pillar, which then fell right toward the Quarians. "Jacob!" Shepard barked, already priming his biotics, "Push!"

Jacob did, biotically shoving the Marines back into the building behind them with everything he had. At the same time, Shepard used his own biotics to slow the fall of the pillar just enough to allow for the Quarians to be thrown clear. An exhausted Jacob moved to cover, catching his breath and trying not to let his brain melt. Shepard, on the other hand, pushed himself even farther, charging forward on foot and drawing his shotgun, blowing away three Troopers and mangling a Hunter. Garrus picked off the annoying Destroyers from afar, taking the show of power in stride. This was Shepard, after all.

When his Katana was empty, Shepard switched to his Avenger. With the assault rifle, he cut down three more Geth units as he moved into the nearby garage to clear them out, where he listened to one of Tali's logs (how glad he was to hear her voice, even if recorded) that gave him the idea to blow up the fallen pillar. Edi marked the charges for him, and he picked up an explosive charge next to the terminal. The other was in the bunker ahead. When the Avenger ran dry, he used his Incisor, with which he punched through two Hunters. When the Incisor stopped firing, he went to his Predator, gunning down the remaining Geth, save the Geth Prime. He had finally worked his way down the bunker, gathering up the other charge.

He could use the explosives to blow up the pillar, but that was plan B. And the Geth Prime still had to be dealt with. His Predator empty, Shepard resorted to his Shuriken machine pistol, not wanting to waste time on reloading. Garrus and Jacob had already weakened it a considerable amount,having kept it distracted while Shepard had Rambo'd his way to the explosives.

Charging the Prime from behind, Shepard pelted it with his weapon, pulling the trigger fast enough to make the burst-pistol fire a constant stream of firepower as if it were fully automatic, burning through the magazine in seconds. The Prime turned to this new threat, firing its own powerful weapon at the Commander, who let his barriers absorb the shock. The moment that its armor was pierced, Garrus hit the Prime with an overload, stunning it and partially frying its systems.

Shepard reached his target, his guns empty. Growling with both rage and effort, he grabbed his target with both hands and hoisted the machine above his head, his armor growing tight as his muscles bulged with the strain. With a great deal of effort, he turned to the toppled pillar and threw the Geth Prime at the stone barrier with all of his might.

The large synthetic being collided with the pillar, dying on impact and taking a chunk out of the stone. For a moment, Shepard just stood where he was and breathed heavily, letting his mind come down from the combat high and his muscles relax after such extreme exertion. When he had caught his breath, he motioned for Jacob to help him lift the pillar via biotics.

Together, the two men were able to slowly move the obstacle out of the way, placing it a few feet away from where it started, just enough to get through. Both were careful to avoid overloading their implants again. Shepard made a mental note that he now had two powerful explosives, in case anything big needed destroying. He took point, slipping sideways through the new gap into the room ahead, where the small squad of Quarian Marines were tending to their wounds.

They raised their weapons instinctively at his entry, and he raised his hands to show that he was friendly, saying sarcastically, "What, do Geth have biotics now and no one told me?" Then, more seriously, "Lower your weapons, people. It would be painful, ironic, and painfully ironic for me to have to fight you after I just saved your lives."

They all collectively relaxed, sighing in relief. "Sorry, Commander," One apologized, "After what we've been through today, we can't let our guard down. We heard you talking on the radio, and we saw you get us out of the way of that pillar, but we couldn't exactly see who won the fight out there thanks to said pillar."

Shepard waved dismissively as Garrus and Jacob made their way in, "Don't worry about it. If anything, it's good that your first instinct was to assume hostile contact. If I _had_ been a Geth coming through, you would have been a lot safer with your weapons at the ready."

Jacob helped the wounded Marines by sharing some of their rarely-used supply of medi-gel. The Quarians were understandably hesitant to trust a human wearing armor emblazoned with the Cerberus logo, but he took this in stride and simply handed them the gel, allowing them to use it without fear of him doing something else to them.

Garrus searched through the various Geth wreckages scattered around the room, finding two that still had some intact hardware that was reasonably valuable. He then moved to scanning a disassembled Geth rifle for useful data. When he completed the scan, he confirmed that they could probably get some use out of it by applying some of the tech to their own assault rifles. When the Marines protested, he assured them that the actual rifle would be left for them to claim, and that he only needed the scans to fabricate more parts on the Normandy.

Shepard, on the other hand, found another Tempest SMG, just like the one he had given to Jacob earlier. He tossed his still-depleted Shuriken aside, holstering the more powerful weapon. He then reloaded his other weapons. As he did this, the terminal across the room came to life. Although he could not see the actual colors of the Quarian's suit, he instantly recognised the form of Tali'Zorah looking back at them.

Before anyone else could react, Shepard lunged across the room, jumping up and vaulting over the railing athletically, not even needing his biotics with so much adrenaline pumping through his veins. But this time, it was good adrenaline, the kind one gets when getting amazing news unexpectedly, not that of a battle.

He whipped off his helmet and caught himself against the terminal, beaming at the person he came here to save all before she could utter a single word. Tali jumped, then recognized him, sighing in relief, "Keelah, Shepard, you scared me! Did anyone survive over there?" Shepard couldn't help but smile wider; that was the Tali he remembered, always thinking of her people first.

"Four of us, ma'am!" One of the marines shouted, "Shepard saved us!"

Tali nodded, "I expected no less from you, Shepard," she said matter-of-factly, maintaining a relatively professional demeanor.

Shepard, in turn, shrugged playfully, returning to the old nice-guy Commander, "What can I say? I'd hate to disappoint," He then matched her serious tone, "What about you? How far are we from your position? Are you hurt?"

Tali sighed, "I forgot that you can just change tone like a switch. I'm fine. I've managed to lock myself in the observatory just ahead," she lowered her voice, "Shepard, almost every Marine sacrificed themselves to get me in here. Please: anyone you find who's still alive, keep them that way," She pleaded to him.

Shepard fitted his helmet back to his head, nodding, "No need to ask twice. I'll tie 'em down if I have to." Tali nodded, and ended the transmission. Shepard turned to the Marines, "Everyone stay put. Tali'Zorah wants you not to throw your lives away here, so my team and I are going ahead alone," he ordered sternly, adding, "And you heard me tell her the lengths I'll go to in order to make sure her wish is fulfilled."

The Quarians nodded, not bothering to hide the fact that they were somewhat grateful to not have to carry on in their broken state. Shepard signaled for Garrus and Jacob to rally on him, and together they moved on into the next room. There, they met heavy resistance in the form of Troopers, Recon Drones, and another Geth Prime. Shepard groaned in frustration, not eager to pull off the same moves from earlier.

His mood was substantially lifted as Jacob took down the clusters of drones with his biotics, pulling them out of the air, and Garrus picked off the Troopers one by one, scoring a headshot with each one. This left the Geth Prime, and only the Geth Prime, to Shepard. Having reloaded his guns earlier, Shepard was able to take on the Prime with relative ease, unleashing a torrent of gunfire from his Avenger, then finishing it off with the Incisor.

The Geth dealt with the three men moved on. As they walked forward briskly, Shepard reminded everyone to remain hydrated in the immense heat, taking a swig from his own canteen. He would have gone for his flask, but that would have actually had the opposite effect. They moved into the next room, opening the shutters in front of the windows to reveal a massive Geth Colossus, which opened fire almost immediately, forcing them to scramble for cover.

They moved out through the door to the left to find a lone Quarian marine hunkered at the bottom of the stairs with a rocket launcher in his hands. Shepard dropped down next to him, killing a Geth Trooper that was getting too close for comfort.

"I still don't know why you're here, Shepard," Kal'Reegar said as Shepard crouched beside him, "But this ain't the time to be picky. Tali's inside over there. The Geth killed the rest of my squad, and they're trying to get to her. Best I've been able to do is draw their attention."

"Are you sure she's alright?" Shepard asked, concerned.

"The observatory is reinforced. Even the Geth will need time to get through it," He chuckled, "And it's hard to hack a door when someone's firing rockets at you! The Geth are near platoon strength, but the Colossus is the worst part; it's got a repair protocol-"

"I have a solution to that, I think," Shepard interrupted him as he produced the two esplosive charges, "If these things are powerful enough to blow up about two meters of solid stone, then they should be able to blow up a Geth Colossus, especially after its taken enough fire!"

"Good plan," Reegar agreed, "I'm not moving so well, but I can still pull a trigger, and I've got a rocket launcher that the sun hasn't fried yet. You move in close. I'll keep the Colossus busy, maybe even drop its shields. With luck, you'll be able to finish it off."

"Don't throw your life away, Reegar," Shepard barked, "You've done enough to help, now I'll take it from here."

"Wasn't asking your permission. My job is to keep Tali safe," He stood, hefting his launcher.

Shepard pushed him behind the wall just as a shot sailed past, right where Reegar was standing, "Dammit, Kal!" he shouted, at the Marine, "I get it, but it's my job to protect her, too! Tali told me _directly_ to keep as many Quarians alive as possible, and you've already lost too many people to take one for the team! Stand down!"

"I'm not just going to sit on my ass while you go charging into enemy fire!" Reegar protested, "These bastards killed my whole squad!"

"Well, you've got a few left alive back there! And if you want to honor your fallen, watch our backs and stay here! I need you here in case they bring reinforcements!"

"Fine," Kal reluctantly agreed, crouching behind cover, "Hit 'em for me! Keelah se'lai!"

Not wasting any time, Shepard shot across the battlefield in a biotic charge, closing the gap to the Colossus in seconds and bypassing the other Geth units. He slid underneath the giant robot as Garrus and Jacob focused fire on it from the other end of the battlefield, hitting it with abilities and ammunition alike.

He leapt up to its underbelly, a charge in each hand, and stuck them to the surface of the armor plating. Shepard then rolled away, springing to his feet and breaking into a dead sprint away from the Colossus. When the onslaught of plasma became too much for his barriers to take, he turned, jumping backwards in a Hollywood-style dive, Tempest raised. He fired a burst at the Explosives, hoping that at least one would reach their mark. The first two shots missed, but the third hit home, triggering the explosive charge, the blast taking down the Colossus's shields and subsequently triggering the other charge, which blew a hole straight through its midsection.

Shepard landed hard on his back, turning to his left to shoot at the Geth on the catwalk and clear a path for Garrus and Jacob. He clambered to his feet, switching to his shotgun as he moved back to the door, blasting away any Geth trying to do the same. The door had been blown open by the blast of explosives and exploding Colossus. One final Trooper was staggering its way into the doorway, weapon raised, but Shepard was much faster.

Roaring with pent-up fury, he grabbed the Trooper by the ankle and whirled around, hurling it into the air. Garrus then casually shot it back out of the air with his sniper rifle as he moved to secure the doorway with Jacob.

Shepard stepped into the room, holstering his shotgun after a job well done. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted movement. His biotics flared as he turned to face the figure in hiding. "Come on out," he said loudly, walking steadily forward, "Before I suspect that you're some kind of malfunctioning Geth Trooper and send you across the room with my mind. Frankly, I would like to think that-"

"John!" Tali cried as she leapt out of her shadowy cover, throwing herself into him and flinging her arms around him as she sobbed quietly into his shoulder, "Keelah, I thought that you were going to die again! I thought that the Geth had gotten through! I thought-"

Shepard smiled, relieved as his biotics died down, "You thought wrong, and for once it was a good thing. And you can thank your people for keeping the Geth out."

Tali sniffled, pulling herself together, "You mean the four you saved?"

"Make that five, ma'am!" Kal'Reegar called as he hobbled through the doorway, "Your old Captain's as good as you said; damn Colossus never stood a chance."

"Reegar!" Tali exclaimed, fully recomposed, "You made it!" Shepard noted how quickly she was able to reclaim her relatively calm composure. He was proud to see this scared little Quarian girl turn into a strong woman. She turned to him, "Thank you, Shepard."

"So," he asked tentatively, "What was this mission even about?"

Tali sighed, tapping away at her omni-tool, "We were here to collect data on the sun, believe it or not. It's giving off readings that suggest that it's going into the red giant phase, but it's far too young for that to happen naturally."

"And was the data worth it?"

"I don't know, Shepard," Tali seemed to deflate, "The Admiralty board thinks that our sacrifice is worth this data, and I have to trust that they know what's best for us."

Shepard folded his arms over his chest stubbornly, "Well, I'd just love to have a little chat with these Admirals of yours. If they want to send good men and women to their deaths to learn about some star, while I'm alive? They've got a whole other thing coming."

"Well," Reegar interrupted, trying to cool down the room, "It's thanks to you that we now have some people left alive. Whether that proves your point or not is up to you, I guess, but I think that Tali'Zorah has earned the choice to leave."

Shepard nodded, "And if those Admirals think otherwise-"

"Then they can go to Hell," Tali finished aggressively, surprising everyone. To their looks, she defended herself, "I just watched nearly my entire squad die. I think I'm allowed to have some anger right now."

After some short conversation, Shepard was able to get confirmation from Kal that the Quarians' ship was still intact and functional. He offered them a lift in the Normandy anyway, but the Marines respectfully declined. On the shuttle ride back, he realised something.

"Tali," He asked, breaking the silence, "When you jumped out in that room back there… did you call me by my first name?"

Tali suddenly shrunk, growing intensely sheepish, "Um… Y-yes, I think I did," she admitted quietly, "S-sorry."

"No, no," he said thoughtfully, "I like it. I like the way it sounds in your voice." This was quite the compliment, as Shepard was known for a largely unspoken hatred of being referred to by his first name. They fell back into silence, and no one spoke again until they boarded the Normandy.

* * *

**A/N: Quick note: I'm trying a new strategy for my writing. I would rather spend a long time making for you guys a good chapter, rather than rapid-production crappy chapters. In other words, (mediocre) quality over quantity. Hope you like it. Cheers!**

**-VV**

**Edit: Thank you to Anonymous for kindly reminding my dumb self that the Mantis is the sniper rifle, not the Locust, which was the Kassa Fabrication SMG you get on Kasumi's mission. (Wish I knew an alias for ya buddy, but you know who you are! Thanks!)**


	5. Through Sickness and Wounds

Stepping off of the Normandy and into the docks of Omega, Shepard wished that the salarian doctor whom they were tasked to retrieve had chosen someplace else. _Anyplace_ else, now that he thought about it. Omega was a former mining station turned criminal refuge; it was the Citadel's smaller, grimier, bloodier sibling, crawling with the scum of the galaxy mixed with people too poor to leave.

"I see why you came here for your vigilante work, Garrus," Tali commented as they made their way to Afterlife, "You could work forever to clean this place up, and never finish the job."

"Easiest job I ever had," the turian replied, "Here, you can just shoot in any direction and hit some criminal scum or another. Once, my team and I even thought about planting explosives across the station to kill them all in one quick sweep."

"And how'd that end?" Shepard inquired, taking his mind off of his surroundings.

Garrus shrugged, "Never actually tried it; too many innocents would get caught in the blast. We just stuck to our strategy of shooting our targets."

They walked through the doors of Afterlife, the bouncer simply letting them pass. Shepard led the group through the main floor, where people were drinking, dancing, and forgetting about their miserable lives for a bit.

Tali was worried about her surroundings, sticking close to her bigger friends. Garrus was suspicious, keeping one hand near his sidearm at all times. Shepard, one the other hand, strode unfazed up to the booth of Aria T'loak, who had her back to them. At his approach, the guards raised their weapons mechanically, prompting Shepard's friends to return the favor. He waved them down, signaling that all was well.

Aria nodded her head to the side, signaling her guards to stand down. She turned around, taking a seat and motioning for Shepard to do the same. He sat adjacent to her, appearing relaxed, but in truth, he was tense and ready to draw his weapon in an instant; he knew that no one on Omega could be trusted.

"Shepard," Aria greeted, "I hear that Archangel is dead?"

"You could say that," Shepard replied evenly, glancing quickly at Garrus, "He's… not living on Omega anymore, if that's what you're asking."

Aria nodded, smirking, "Whether or not the rumors are true is not my concern. What is it that you need from me?"

He leaned forward, "Looking for a salarian doctor by the name of Mordin Solus. Heard he was somewhere on Omega."

Aria grinned, "Ah, yes. Mordin Solus. Former SVT turned doctor. I always liked that one; just as likely to heal you as he is to kill you."

"Do you know where I can find him?"

"He's in the quarantine zone, trying to cure the disease we've been dealing with there."

"Thanks for the info," Shepard said crisply, standing, "That'll be all from me."

Aria nodded, and let the team leave. As they exited the club, Garrus turned abruptly to his friend. "You went to Aria T'loak to find me?" he demanded quietly, "I was trying to find a way to get at her for months, and you just waltz in and ask her where I was!?"

Shepard shrugged, "The recruitment station for killing you was in there; it was the easiest way to find you. I did find you, didn't I? And not a moment too soon, I might add."

Garrus sighed, knowing that his friend was right. They navigated through the corridors of Omega, and on their way to the quarantine zone a batarian was shouting nonsense, "Humanity is a plague, come to claim us all!" When he saw Shepard, he pointed accusingly at him, "You, sir! You are a plague!"

"A plague to the Reapers, maybe," Shepard snarled, "But if you want to join them on that list, then be my guest!"

Tali placed a hand on his shoulder, silent until now, "Shepard, just ignore him. You'll only encourage him, talking like that."

He looked at her as he continued walking, "So we're back to Shepard, huh?"

"W-we're in public," Tali explained quickly, "I figured that you wouldn't want me to call you by your first name here."

He smiled, "Just pulling your leg, Tali. I appreciate it."

They neared the entrance to the quarantine zone, where a young human woman was arguing with the turian guard. "Let me in, dammit!" she shouted, "You can't keep me out of my own home!"

"Afraid I can, lady," the guard responded, clearly annoyed, "Humans are the only species not affected by that plague, but we're not taking any chances. Besides, with all of the gang wars going on, you'd die anyway."

Shepard and company approached the guard. "We're looking for entrance into the quarantine zone," the Commander stated, "in order to find Mordin Solus."

The guard sighed, "Not more… look, I get it; you're human, you're immune, but we can't take any chances with letting that contagion spread."

"We heard he was working on a cure," Tali butted in, "We're here to help Dr. Solus develop that cure and purge the disease. We won't leave until we do."

The guard eyed her. For a moment, Shepard felt a rush of adrenaline as he thought that the turian might be undressing her with his eyes. "You're awfully brave, miss," he said, causing Shepard to relax slightly, "Quarians aren't exactly known for their ability to survive deadly diseases."

"My enviro-suit will keep the infection out," Tali countered. She gestured to Shepard and Garrus, "And I'm not exactly going in alone or unprepared, am I?"

He seemed to think about it for a moment, appraising their various weapons and armor. He shrugged, "Alright, go on in."

The human woman was outraged, "You're letting them in and not me!? They don't even live here!"

"You don't have a grenade launcher, lady."

"And what about the quarian!?"

"You don't have a shotgun, either."

As they stepped through the door, Shepard stopped by the guard, "You'll be seeing another armed human coming through soon, name of Jacob Taylor. He's with me." The guard nodded his acknowledgment, and Shepard continued into the quarantine zone after his teammates.

"Jacob," Shepard said over comms, "We're moving to retrieve the doctor, but there's some kind of plague that doesn't affect humans."

"Need some extra immunity?" Jacob guessed.

"Affirmative. I've made sure that the guard will let you through."

"Roger that. I'll be there ASAP."

They waited for just a few minutes before Jacob arrived. He walked through the entrance door, and looked somewhat surprised to see Garrus and Tali. Jacob looked to Shepard, "Are you sure that they should come along?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tali huffed.

"You two are vulnerable to the plague," Jacob said reasonably, "We don't know what its effects are, or how deadly it is."

"We'll be fine, Jacob," Garrus reassured him, "We've been through worse than a little sickness."

"Jacob has a point, though," Shepard added, "I don't want either of you pushing yourselves too hard in here; we need to make sure this plague doesn't put you out of commission."

They advanced into the quarantine zone, quickly coming across a batarian, slumped against a wall and breathing in labored rasps. Seeing them, he waved them away, "Get away from me, human! Let me die in peace!"

Shepard knelt down next to him, pulling out a unit of medi-gel, "I'd rather you not die at all. This won't cure you, but it'll help."

After applying the medi-gel, the batarian's breathing normalized somewhat, and he brought himself slowly to his feet. "I… thank you, human," he said apologetically, "I underestimated you."

Shepard nodded, "Common mistake. Now find yourself some real medical attention."

As the team continued, Tali moved beside Shepard, "That was very generous of you."

He waved off the compliment dismissively, "I hardly ever use the stuff anyway. Better than letting it go to waste."

As they entered the quarantine zone proper, it was not long before shots were fired. Blood Pack mercenaries, made up of krogan and the horrific vorcha, were locked in combat with the Blue Suns, composed of turians, batarians, and humans. Team Normandy managed to sneak up from behind the Blue Suns front, taking cover and staying out of sight, allowing the two mercenary groups to kill each other.

Jacob and Tali fell into cover to the left flank, while Garrus and Shepard took the right. It was not long until the Blood Pack overwhelmed the Blue Suns, leaving Team Normandy to eliminate the survivors. "On my mark…" Shepard muttered.

"Now!" Jacob lifted a group of mercenaries into the air, while Tali deployed her attack drone. Garrus picked off the flying mercs, and Shepard charged forward, emptying his assault rifle into anything that moved. As he moved around his enemies' cover, a krogan ambushed him, grabbing the human as he charged into a wall, smashing Shepard into the metal surface.

Shepard groaned as he felt the impact against his spine, shutting his eyes and clenching his jaw. The alien held him to the wall with one hand, and began pounding his ribs with the other. He grunted with each blow, feeling his rib cage slowly giving way to the powerful punches. At the same time, Shepard grew enraged with each hit, his grunts of pain evolving into shouts of anger.

He opened his eyes to reveal that they were ablaze with an intense biotic glow. Shepard roared, coiling up and kicking the krogan with both legs, sending his attacker staggering backward. He reached out with one hand, holding the krogan in place with his biotic power. With his other hand, he fired his assault rifle from the hip, draining the thermal clip into the merc's face, pulverizing it.

Shepard dropped the corpse, leaning back against the wall as he panted, catching his breath. His friends rounded the corner, shooting a few remaining enemies. Tali appeared at his side, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Tali," Shepard insisted, "Just need a minuteー that bastard got some good hits in."

"You shouldn't push yourself like that," Jacob warned, "I'm pretty good with biotics, and even I would be taking a pretty big risk holding him in place without a stasis field."

"I understand that you need to protect your assets, Jacob," Shepard grunted, pushing off from the wall and abolishing the pain from his mind, "But I decide how I fight my enemies."

"Forget protecting assets," the Cerberus agent countered, "I'm protecting my Commander, and someone who I can hope to call a friend."

Shepard was surprised by Jacob's attitude. He was thoughtful and loyal not just to Cerberus, but his fellow soldiers. He apologized, thanking Jacob for his concern. Jacob accepted his gratitude, and the group moved forward. They ran into more firefights between Blood Pack and Blue Suns units, and they employed the same strategy each time: wait for them to kill each other, then eliminate the survivors.

As they made their way deeper into the quarantine zone, Garrus began to cough uncontrollably. "Garrus!" Shepard said urgently, "You alright!?"

After a moment of coughing, the turian caught his breath, "Yeah… I'll be okay."

"We should probably pick up the pace," Jacob offered, "Our strategy is effective, but it's slowing us down. Garrus needs medical attention, and soon."

"Wouldn't mind some medicine right about now…" Garrus added.

The next time they came across mercenaries, they did not wait for them to fight each other. Instead, Team Normandy attacked immediately, carving their way through both groups with judicial usage of abilities and weapons. Garrus stayed in the back, using his sniper rifle as Jacob spotted for him, lifting targets out of cover and into the air. Shepard and Tali used their shotguns to push forward, flushing enemies out of cover via flanking maneuver. Tali flanked left, Shepard right, and together they hit the entrenched mercenaries from both sides, raining down shotgun fire.

As they finished off the last few mercs, one got a lucky shot off at Tali. Her shields depleted by the steady advance under fire, the bullet ripped through her suit. The quarian yelped in pain as the shot burrowed into her side, collapsing as she clutched her side. Shepard felt his veins coursing with adrenaline, knowing that she was now exposed to the plague.

Garrus promptly decapitated the Blood Pack vorcha that had taken the shot with a single bullet from his sniper rifle. Shepard biotically warped across the room, kneeling down by the fallen Tali and examined her wound. "Jacob, Garrus!" he shouted, "Keep moving ahead, we'll catch up!"

"I suppose it's too much to hope for a medikit?" Tali asked sarcastically, "The bullet is still in there."

Shepard knew that his combat knife was arguably the worst kind of knife to dig out a bullet; a stiletto blade would have been much more effective. He knew that he had no tools that could remove the bullet without doing more damage. Then an idea struck him.

"Tali," he said carefully, "I'm going to remove the bullet with my biotics."

Tali tensed, "No offense, John, but don't you think that Jacob might be better suited for this? He's probably better with fine movements."

"I've been practicing," Shepard insisted, placing his palm over her wound and focusing, locating the bullet by probing with his biotic powers, "I can do it just fine. Trust me."

As Shepard's biotics flared, Tail squirmed slightly. He had always been a powerful person, but the sight of the purple energy made her feel hot; it was a reminder that he was only more powerful now. At that moment, she was almost overwhelmed by mixed signals of fear and attraction. Shepard didn't notice, closing his eyes as he felt the bullet, lodged into her flesh, and grabbed it with his mind.

"I'm just gonna pull it out, okay?" Shepard explained, "Like pulling off a bandage."

"I hope it occurs to you that I have no idea what that feels like?" Tali said nervously. Shepard paused, realizing that she was right.

"Well," he muttered, "It's better if you do it quickly."

"I'll take your word for it," Tali clamped her eyes shut, "Just do it already!"

Shepard closed his hand into a fist, taking hold of the bullet with his biotics. "On three," he said, "One… two… three!" he pulled his hand back as fast and straight as he could. Tali screamed in agony, arching her back reflexively as the shot exited her body as quickly as it had entered. Shepard's eyes narrowed at hearing her cry out like that, his jaw clamping down on his tongue so hard that it bled into his mouth.

"Owwww…" Tali groaned, half-crying in pain. She clutched her side desperately, even as her suit clamped shut to seal off the wound and pump her full of antibiotics.

"Oh God, Tali!" Shepard began to panic, "Are you okay!? What did I do!?

"Nnnngh," she moaned, latching onto him like a child, "Help me, John… Help me…"

It was then that Shepard remembered the plague; Tali was now infected, and her health would deteriorate at a far greater rate than Garrus's. He rose to his feet, holding one arm under her as she clung to his chest. He drew his hand cannon with his free hand, ready to shoot anything that moved.

"You were even more correct than we thought, Jacob," Shepard said roughly as he caught up with them, "Tali's been exposed."

"I think I can walk…" Tali said shakily, prompting Shepard to set her down carefully, "I'll try to fight for as long as I can."

"Don't push yourself too hard," Garrus advised, "My lungs feel like sandpaper, and I'm going to be degrading a lot slower than you will."

"If you need to stop fighting, don't hesitate to rest; we can cover you," Jacob added, reloading his Shuriken machine pistol, emphasizing his point.

They advanced once again. True to her word, Tali fought for as long as she could; all of five shots before she had to sit down and catch her breath, saving her strength. Shepard, it seemed, compensated for this by fighting twice as hard.

Though, in reality, he was getting desperate; not only was Tali getting worse by the second, but Garrus was also slowly losing strength to his own affliction. Shepard could hear the turian panting as they moved from one encounter to the next, but Garrus was as strong-willed as his friend. He pushed ahead, forcing himself to keep up the pace.

As they finally reached the entrance of the clinic, Shepard rushed forward. "I have a turian and a quarian, both infected by the plague," he said quickly before spotting the LOKI mechs behind the counter aiming their weapons at him.

The human working the counter eyed him suspiciously, "That so? And where are these patients?"

"Open the damned door," Garrus panted angrily as he appeared next to his friend, "Or you're going to share the fate of those mercs we took down back there!"

Tali stumbled forward, hardly able to remain standing as her delicate immune system was decimated by the already deadly disease. She inhaled as if to speak, then fell limp. Shepard lunged, catching her as she fell. He held her gingerly, afraid that he might break her in her weakened state. After a brief struggle, Tali fainted, and Shepard took her in his arms and looked to the human behind the counter, who took an instinctive step back at the sight of the Commander's narrowed eyes.

"Open… the… goddamn… door!"

"Okay, okay!" the human exclaimed, allowing them to enter via his control panel, "I didn't realize that it was so bad! We just have to be extra careful with all those mercs around!"

As Shepard rushed Tali inside, Jacob tailing close behind, Garrus placed a hand on the counter calmly. "It's not your fault," he said, cut off for a moment by a violent bout of coughing, "We're all just trying to survive, and we especially want _her_ to get out of this one. And those mercs? You shouldn't have to worry nearly as much about them anymore." With that, Garrus followed his friends into the clinic.

"Thank you!" the human called after him.

"Don't mention it," Garrus responded over his shoulder, "It was our pleasure to put down some more of those scumbags."

In the clinic, Shepard brought Tali to the office of Mordin Solus. He laid her down on the medical table, and the doctor scanned her with his omni-tool. "Hmm," the salarian said, "Quarian immune system weak; sickness has progressed at accelerated rate. Probably too late to treat."

"You have to try!" Jacob insisted, "You can't just let her die like this!"

Shepard grabbed Mordin, "Cure her, dammit! Whatever you have to do, just do it!"

The salarian nodded, turning to the unconscious Tali and administering a veritable cocktail of different immuno-boosters and medicines. Shepard watched anxiously, knowing that each injection brought Tali closer to an overdose. Adrenaline pumped through his system, making his entire body tense up and scream at him to do something, though he knew that this was not his domain; he was a soldier, not a doctor.

Garrus then entered the room, taking in the scene. Mordin turned to him, running a quick scan. He administered an immuno-booster to the turian, who was almost immediately re-invigorated, standing up straighter and inhaling deeply.

Tali opened her eyes, coughing as she sat up. Shepard rushed to her side, sliding his arms behind her back to let her lean on him for support. "Are you alright?" he asked quickly.

Tali coughed, and Shepard could sense that she was smiling wryly, "No, Shepard, I am not 'alright;' I'm extremely sick. But I'm alive and plan on staying that way, if that helps."

"And what about you, Garrus?" Shepard looked over to his friend, hoping to get moving and finish this mission quickly.

Garrus checked his guns, "The good doctor seems to know what he's doing; my lungs feel normal again, and I feel ready to take on the entirety of Omega."

Shepard nodded, "Good," he turned back to Tali, "I don't want you fighting unless you're absolutely sure you're healthy enough for it. If you think that you're safer here, then please just stay behind, and we'll pick you up after we're done."

Tali gave him an apologetic look, "I… I think that it might be best if I take you up on that offer."

"It's alright. I wouldn't have made the offer if I wasn't okay with you staying here. I'd rather you be absent for a few firefights and be safe, than have you die because I pushed you too far."

"Take this," Mordin suggested, handing him a pistol, "Took it from dead mercenary. Might be useful."

Shepard took the hand cannon. It was a Carnifex hand cannon, built for raw stopping power and little else. He passed it off to Jacob, preferring his Predator. The three of them left the clinic, and as they did Mordin requested that they locate and return his assistant, Daniel. Shepard agreed to keep an eye out for the kid.

This ended up being sarcastically easy; he was not far from the clinic at all, with just a few vorcha encountered along the way. Team Normandy entered the room to see three batarians holding the human at gunpoint. They seemed to think that he was trying to spread the plague further, though Shepard knew that he was trying to distribute the treatment.

As they entered, the batarians spotted them. "Hold it right there, human!" the leader shouted, leveling his weapon at them, "Not one more step!"

Shepard motioned for Garrus and Jacob to lower their weapons, "We're just here for the doctor's assistant. No one has to die here."

"Too late," the batarian countered, "Most of us are already dead from this damn plague! We won't let this human spread it further!"

"I'm trying to give you the cure!" Daniel insisted desperately.

"Shut up!" one of the batarians shouted, hitting him in the head with the butt of his rifle.

"I'll tell you what," Shepard said firmly, "You let him go, and we won't kill you where you stand," to prove his point, he signaled his teammates to raise their weapons once again, leveling his own assault rifle at the batarians, "In fact, we'll let you go and forget about this little incident. But decide quickly; we're on a tight schedule."

After a moment of hesitation, they lowered their weapons, "Alright. We'll let him go." One of them pushed Daniel forward with his case of the cure. He thank Shepard, then bolted out the door and back towards the clinic. "We held up our end of the deal," the batarian said, "Now it's your turn."

Once again, Team Normandy lowered their weapons. "Get out of here," Shepard ordered, "And don't cause any more trouble."

"Human honor," the batarian commented as they exited, "I didn't know that such a thing existed."

"Well, not all humans are greedy scumbags," Garrus quipped, "Just like how not all batarians are pirates."

They moved forward, meeting further resistance from Blood Pack forces. As they finished off yet another group, Jacob spoke up, "Anyone else notice that we're meeting more and more vorcha, and less of everything else?"

Shepard realised that Jacob was right; they were fighting almost nothing but vorcha, with only a few scattered Blood Pack krogan. He didn't know what this meant, except that it couldn't be good. They pushed up, eventually reaching the main ventilation control chamber. Naturally, the room was crawling with Blood Pack mercenaries. One vorcha saw them entering, and stopped to address them.

"You no come here!" it screeched at them, "We shut down machines, break fans! Everyone choke and die, then Collectors make us strong!"

So it was the Collectors who were responsible for this plague. This served to annoy Shepard further, though it occurred to him then that it all made sense; the Collectors were abducting humans and taking them alive, so they devised a plague that killed everything except for humans. It would eliminate the majority of any resistance on Omega while leaving their target intact.

"I've had enough of this bullshit," Shepard replied gruffly, "I have no qualms about killing you!"

The vorcha hissed, "Collectors want plague! You work for Doctor, turn on machines, put cure in air! We kill you first!"

_"Christ,_ vorcha are dumber than _rocks,"_ Shepard rolled his eyes, "Kill 'em all!"

Garrus snapped his rifle to his shoulder, kicking off the firefight by beheading an enemy krogan. Jacob lifted a group of enemies into the air, picking them off with his new hand cannon. Shepard charged forward, using his biotic powers to violently blink across the battlefield. He crashed into a vorcha flame unit, knocking them to the ground. Riding on a battle high, Shepard lifted the vorcha into the air, hurling them bodily at an advancing group of enemies with the assistance of his biotics. He fired two quick shots from his assault rifle at the fuel tanks of the flamethrower, causing the weapon to explode onto the other units nearby.

"Shepard," Jacob shouted, "behind you!"

He turned just in time to see the krogan warrior as they tackled him to the ground. The memory of the krogan that had pinned him on the way to the clinic flashed through Shepard's mind. He was determined not to let that happen again. His eyes shone with biotic energy as he channelled his power through his arm, punching the krogan in the jaw with a bone-crushing biotically-augmented right hook, knocking the warrior off of him.

Shepard leapt to his feet, drawing his shotgun and finishing off the krogan with a blast to the head. A vorcha fighter tried to ambush him, but he turned and calmly blew a hole in their torso with a swift pull of the trigger. He fought his way to one vent control, throwing enemies into the air and shooting them down like clay pigeons. Simultaneously, Jacob and Garrus advanced to the second control panel, working in unison with a similar strategy.

Shepard switched to his assault rifle, striking a vorcha in the head with the stock as he entered the control room. He looked at the control panel, only to realise that he had no idea what to do with it in order to turn on the vents. "Tali would know what to do…" he muttered as he attempted to make sense of the panel in front of him.

The door opened, and a vorcha soldier stepped through. Before Shepard had time to react, the creature was ripped apart by the blast of a shotgun. "I probably do," Tali said as she stepped over the body, "Want me to take a look at it?"

"Tali!?" Shepard exclaimed, "You said you were going to stay behind!"

"I did," Tali said as she holstered her weapon, hands flying across the controls to restore power to ventilation, "Then Mordin mentioned that it would take some technical expertise to restore the fans. I figured you might need my help for that part. No offense, but you were never the best at this kind of thing."

"I do just fine at hacking and circuitry, I think."

"That's because you use an assisting program," Tali quipped, finalizing her console commands and turning to leave, "I'd like to see you do that even once without help."

Shepard sighed, conceding his inferior technological know-how, "Let's just get the doctor and get out of here."

Tali nodded, "Think I might sleep off these symptoms for, oh, a few days of straight sleep?"

"Don't make me have to wake you up with a kiss, sleeping beauty," Shepard teased, referencing an old fairy tale.

"Wh-what?" Tali stammered, not understanding the reference.

Shapard waved it off, "It's a _really_ old human story, written to teach kids not to go sticking their noses where they don't belong. I'll explain later."

"Okay…" They returned to the clinic, conversed for a time, then headed back to the Normandy with Mordin. Tali barely noticed any of it over the blood rushing between her ears. She debated whether or not she would actually try to sleep or try to figure out what her Commander had meant.


	6. Prison Break

Stepping onto the white floor of the prison ship's dock, Shepard found that his hand instinctively drifted to his sidearm. This was not just because of the fact that many dangerous prisoners were kept here, but because the guards looked at him as if he were some sort of prey. The fact that Tali and Garrus followed close behind him provided him some small comfort. He knew that, should this go south, they would be right there to back him up.

"Hold it," one of the guards stuck out a hand as they approached the doors, "No weapons allowed."

"I don't think so," Shepard responded evenly, letting a bit of hostility edge its way into his voice.

There was a moment of tense silence as Team Normandy slowly rested their hands on the grips of their weapons, preparing to fight their way out. Personally, Shepard had little interest in their current recruitment target: a prisoner named Jack, who apparently had a reputation for reckless behavior and a bad temper. He reminded Shepard of himself in the worst ways, and he wasn't fond of that fact. If they had to abandon this objective and leave Jack behind, Shepard wouldn't mind that much.

"Gentlemen," a voice said, and Shepard turned to see Warden Kuril entering, "there's no need for conflict here. Sorry, Shepard, but this is just standard procedure."

"It's my procedure to keep my gun," Shepard countered cooly, "It's why I lived as long as I did, and why I'll live even longer this time."

"Ah yes, I heard of your unfortunate demise," Kuril said, "But enough of that," he nodded to his guards, and they stood down, albeit hesitantly. "This way."

Kuril led them past countless cells, explaining that many of the galaxy's most dangerous criminals were kept aboard this prison ship. It made sense, Shepard reasoned; if there was a breakout, there was nowhere for the prisoners to go but out the airlock and into the soul-sucking vacuum of space. Not that this was really necessary, with the constant presence of armed guards.

It was those guards that gave him an uneasy feeling. They all watched him go by as if they knew something that he didn't, as if they were planning something. In all reality, Shepard knew that they probably were; he was experienced enough to know when he was walking into trouble. He wanted to just pass it off as suspicion since he was retrieving Jack, but something told him that this was something more sinister than that.

They passed a cell in which a guard was brutally beating a prisoner. Shepard winced as the inmate curled into a fetal position and cried out in pain as the guard struck him again and again. He stepped toward the cell, "Is that really necessary?"

The guard turned away from the prisoner, "Believe me, this is nothing compared to what he did."

"Well, how does this make you any better than him?" Shepard challenged, "You're flogging a defenseless man while he's on the ground, probably half-senseless by now. Does that sound like a very good thing to do?"

The guard turned sheepish, "I mean… I have my orders."

"Okay, and?" Shepard pressed, "The only difference is that it wasn't your idea; you're still the one doing it. Either way, at this point he's in no condition to do anything but lay there. Whatever your goal is, he's probably so numb and in shock that he doesn't feel half of what you're doing."

The guard seemed to think about it for a moment, "Alright. I'll give him a break."

Shepard nodded before stepping away and continuing down the hallway. He inhaled, letting the adrenaline in his system disperse as he walked. Garrus came up beside him, "Nice job, Shepard. I wouldn't have thought to even try talking to him."

"Garrus is right," Tali said, taking a position at his other shoulder, "That was very honorable of you to help that man, even if you didn't know if he deserved it."

Shepard smiled, "Thanks, Tali. You too, Garrus. I just don't like watching people suffer like that, I guess, especially in a place like this. The isolation and containment should be enough, but beatings are just excessive."

"What if they raped a child?" Garrus asked, and even though Shepard knew that he was being purely hypothetical and asking out of genuine curiosity, he couldn't help but twist his expression uncomfortably and raise an eyebrow.

"Then they should already be dead from a bullet to the brain," Shepard answered seriously.

"Three," Garrus said, as if agreeing.

"Three what?" Tali interjected, sounding confused and slightly perturbed.

"I killed three such people in just such a way," Garrus smiled grimly, "Glad we agree on these things."

Shepard grinned. Garrus was always ready with a quip or joke, even when things should have been far too serious for it. And somehow he always managed to be charismatic in such situations, making it impossible to be mad at him. As they passed another cell, the inmate within got their attention.

"Hey!" he said desperately, "I don't know who you are, but I overheard you helping that guy down the hall. Think you could help me, too, and take me with you? I didn't even do anything that bad!"

"We're just here for Jack," Shepard said evenly, internally debating whether or not to actually help this man. He could be lying, but he might also be a good worker, depending on how grateful he was.

"Wait, you're here for _Jack!?_" he backed up in his cell, "I changed my mind. I don't want to go with you."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, "What's got you so spooked, buddy?"

"Nothing! Just go do your business!"

He shrugged, deciding that this kid wasn't worth the trouble. Shepard took his reaction as a hint that Jack was more than just a criminal, though. As he subconsciously fingered his Predator, he was glad that they had kept their weapons.

"Jack's just through here," Kuril said as they approached the end of the hall, gesturing through the door, "The cell at the opposite end of the room."

Shepard obliged, taking note of how empty the room was. There were desks, but no one in them. Hell, there weren't even any guards. He approached the large door cautiously, expecting someone to jump out at him when it opened; Jack must be a powerful individual to warrant the guards distancing themselves from the cell. When the door opened, however, Shepard's veins rushed with adrenaline as he saw that it was empty!

"Sorry, Shepard," Kuril said over the speakers, "You're more valuable to us as a prisoner than a client. If you would be so kind as to get into the cell…"

Instead of getting mad, Shepard just laughed, "What kind of idiot do you think I am!? I haven't gotten to where I am by laying down and surrendering because some corrupt prison Warden tells me to!" He motioned to Tali and Garrus, drawing his rifle and taking cover by the desks, "You're about to regret double-crossing the galaxy's best soldier, sniper, and engineer!"

"I don't think I'm the best engineer, John," Tali muttered, "But I appreciate the thought."

Shepard smiled, "Maybe not, but I wouldn't trade you for anyone else. And not just because of your engineering skills."

Tali blushed beneath her mask, not that he could see it. The guards rushed through the door, and Garrus brainholed the first one as he stepped inside, sending him pitching backwards. The others pushed past, opening fire instantly and pinning the turian behind his cover. Tali set her attack drone on them, the purple sphere zipping across the room and disrupting the assault by zapping the guards with small bolts of electricity.

Shepard vaulted over the desk, advancing slowly as he fired his assault rifle in short, deliberate bursts to take down the guards one by one. His ribs still hurt from Omega, and he wasn't keen to go charging in like that again anytime soon. This new strategy proved to be extremely effective when mixed with Tali's drone and Garrus overloading their shields, both of them providing extra firepower with their weapons as they, too, advanced with Shepard.

They fought their way back through the hallway as alarms blared in their ears. Kuril shouted orders to capture Shepard over the speakers as they turned the corner to head to the control room to release their prisoner themselves. The three of them stayed in a tight wedge formation, Shepard taking the lead as they moved up to the door, quickly gunning down a few more guards who remained in their way.

Shepard motioned with his hand, and Tali moved to hack the door. She had it open in seconds, with Garrus and Shepard moving into the room beyond in a breach-and-clear style. It ended up being more breach than clear, since it was a small room with only one technician in it. He turned, raising a pistol, and Shepard just nodded to his teammates.

On cue, Garrus and Tali sent synchronized overloads targeted at the technician. The combined shock stunned him into unconsciousness. The others that they had fought were guards and otherwise trained soldiers, but this had been just some worker who was probably thinking that he was about to fight for his life against an unreasonable killing machine. There was no need for him to die like that, and his lack of armor or shields made him easy to incapacitate.

Shepard and Garrus took up defensive positions by the door while Tali hacked into the console. Once again, it only took a matter of moments for her to crack the security and start entering commands. A few seconds later, Tali was releasing Jack from containment. The other two joined her at the window to see the chamber rise from the floor. Two YMIR mechs powered on, turning to face the cell and raising their weapons.

The chamber opened, and the three of them gaped. "That's Jack?" Garrus asked slowly.

"Jack's a woman," Shepard half-asked, half-stated, "A… woman without a shirt?"

Tali elbowed him in the ribs, "Focus, Shepard." He thought he detected jealousy in her voice, which struck him as a bit odd. He was just stating the obvious.

Jack's eyes shot open, and she looked around for a moment. Even from a distance, it was clear that she was furious. With relative ease, she ripped her hands free of their restraints and pulled apart the one around her neck. She then fell to the ground, landing on her feet before barrelling toward the two YMIRs, smashing right through them and decimating both of them with two biotic strikes, not slowing down in her rage-fueled rampage.

Using his own biotic abilities, Shepard shattered the glass windows and jumped down to the floor below. The two dextros, with their naturally strong legs, were able to follow easily. Stopping only to grab some salvage from one of the destroyed mechs, Shepard led his team forward, following Jack's trail of destruction. More alarms began to sound as cells across the ship were opened, prisoners running rampant throughout.

As they made their way forward, they met heavy resistance in the form of both guards and prisoners using improvised weapons, as well as guns stolen from the very guards that they were fighting. "There aren't any innocents here," Shepard said to his friends, slipping a fresh thermal clip into his rifle, "Weapons free!"

They cut through both the guards and prisoners with swift and steady efficiency, Shepard taking the lead by advancing in the open and drawing enemy fire while Garrus stayed in the back with his sniper rifle, and Tali moved from cover to cover to accompany Shepard in close-range combat.

As they cleared out the first room, Tali sneezed, preluding a fit of coughing and sniffling. Shepard checked the area around the next corner, verifying that the way forward was clear of hostiles before hurrying to her side. "You alright, Tali?" He asked, concerned.

"I'm okay," Tali sniffled, her coughing concluded, "Just still recovering from Omega. I thought that I could hold it together until the end of the mission, but I should have known better than to assume that there wouldn't be complications!" she laughed ruefully, but Shepard did not find it funny at all.

"If you're sick, you should've told me, Tali," Shepard scolded, "I wouldn't have made you come along if I had known."

"Exactly why I didn't tell you," Tali smiled behind her visor, "I wouldn't trust any Cerberus people with your safety."

Shepard groaned, "If you're sick, you shouldn't be heading into missions! Garrus, back me up here!"

"No, no, she has a point," Garrus said, "I wouldn't trust them either. Jacob might be the only exception, but I'm still on the fence about him. Mordin might not be Cerberus, but I have yet to get a read on him, and he doesn't seem all that useful in a firefight, no offense to him."

With a sigh, Shepard gave up on trying to convince Tali that she should think of herself in these situations. He did, however, insist that Tali use a unit of medi-gel and take some symptom-dampening medicines to make sure that she didn't have another reaction; he didn't want her passing out in the middle of a firefight.

They moved ahead into the hallway, picking up salvage and medi-gel along the way. As they rounded the corner into the next room, Kuril shouted over the speakers, "Forget the other prisoners! Recapture Jack!"

"I don't think Jack wants to be recaptured," Garrus commented sarcastically.

"What tipped you off?" Shepard responded, gesturing to the wrecked automatons and dead bodies littering the ground, "I'm no engineer, but I've served on enough ships to know that, at this rate, she'll tear this entire ship apart."

"I _am_ an engineer," Tali interjected, "And I agree with that notion! Let's keep going!"

Pushing through several more prisoners and guards, they eventually came across a functional security YMIR, marching right back at them as it gunned down prisoners with ease. Before anyone could react, the giant mech spotted them and opened fire, spraying missiles and high-caliber rounds at the trio.

Something in his mind seemed to click, and by some new instinct Shepard raised his hands in front of him, channelling his biotic powers into creating a barrier in front of them to absorb the incoming fire. This was at the cost of his own personal barrier, however, and as he stood with his arms outstretched, he was vulnerable to anyone trying to flank them. Acutely aware of this, and his strength draining fast under the constant bombardment of the YMIR, Shepard shouted to his teammates to do something, he didn't care what.

Quick-witted Garrus overloaded the mech's shields, and without pause began to pound its armor with his Mantis. Tali deployed her drone, setting about trying to hack into the mech's systems remotely. Shepard could feel himself about to give out, and formulated a last-second plan. He let the barrier drop, unhooking a grenade from his belt and throwing it in one fluid motion while diving sideways in an effort to buy himself a few more moments of not being torn in half.

The YMIR fired a missile just as this happened, the projectile hitting the ground where Shepard had stood. The blast threw him even further through the air than his dive, sending him crashing against the wall as his grenade found its target, exploding mere centimeters in front of the mech's chassis and causing it to stagger as the blast pushed it backwards.

His ears rang from the impact of the missile, and the dark pull of unconsciousness threatened to overtake him. Shepard pushed aside his weariness, noting to himself as he stumbled to his feet that he was probably suffering from shell-shock, if not a concussion, or both. As his vision cleared, he saw that the YMIR was still operational!

But it was no longer facing them, instead firing upon the other members of the security force and advancing back through the enemy line. Tali must have managed to hack it, since it completely ignored team Normandy as it slaughtered the remaining guards. Not long after it had killed the final guard, the mech's systems regained control from Tali's hack, turning to face them once again.

However, it was now severely damaged thanks to both the efforts of the ground team and the fight against the other guards. With a simple overload, Tali brought the YMIR to its knees, where it erupted into flames and fell completely to the ground.

She rushed over to Shepard. "Now it's my turn to ask if you're okay," she said half-jokingly, though her eyes betrayed great concern, "Are you wounded?"

He smiled, waving her off, "I'm fine, Tali. Thanks for asking," he changed the subject, "Nice job hacking that tin can. Miranda owes me twenty credits."

"Why's that?"

"She told me that you weren't as well suited for intense combat, so I made a bet that you would show us all up the next time I took you out on a mission," he looked around, "Which I guess came sooner than we anticipated. And you're doing this all while sick, so I think that Miranda also owes you an apology for doubting you!"

"You'd know better than anyone that Tali is Normandy's ace in the hole," Garrus piped up, joining them as they walked on, "You two went together on nearly every mission that we had back during our fight against Saren."

This was true. Tali considered the fact that, two years ago, she had always been Shepard's first pick whenever they were heading out on a mission. It had even gotten to the point where he didn't even have to tell her when she was coming along, but instead when she _wasn't_, which had only been on a couple of occasions.

"Don't count yourself out, Garrus," Shepard said, interrupting her thoughts, "The only reason that I didn't take you on every mission as well was if you were still recovering from a bad hit. Hell, it was the same for Tali!"

Now that she thought about it, that had been the only reason why she hadn't been on a couple of missions; she had either been injured, sick, or both, to the point that she had needed to stay in sick bay. Shepard had always chosen her and Garrus whenever possible. Even the beautiful Liara T'soni or the powerful Urdnot Wrex were second choices after the engineer and sniper, even when biotics were recommended.

Even aboard the Normandy, Shepard had spent more time with Tali and Garrus than anyone else, the only possible exception being Doctor Chakwas in sick bay when he was recovering from wounds. He had spent a lot of time between missions in the cargo bay with Garrus, modifying their equipment and shooting targets in their makeshift gun range. But Shepard had spent even more time in Engineering with Tali, sometimes trying his best to learn the basics of whatever it was she happened to be doing. Usually, though, he had just made conversation with her, talking about anything from their mission to their respective lives back home.

When Liara had obviously begun to develop feelings for Shepard, Tali had taken note of the fact that he appeared to be completely oblivious, treating her with the same respect and courtesy that he had always shown to her, as well as everyone else. He had continued spending time with Tali, much to the asari's jealousy, and had even once mentioned that he was interested in seeing the Flotilla and meeting more people like her.

The three of them were inseparable, and though two years had made their team synergy a bit rusty, the trust and friendship was still there. Presently, they entered the next room to see another battle raging, shaking Tali from her thoughts as they took up covered positions. At the other end of the room was Warden Kuril, surrounded by guards and wielding a sniper rifle atop a small tower. Three generators kept a bubble shield up around the tower, protecting Kuril and his men from harm.

Garrus snapped off a shot, destroying one of the generators. The other two took no time in following suit, Tali flanking left for one pylon while Shepard moved right to go for the other. Garrus set up shop in his own little sniper's nest across from Kuril, covering both of his teammates with precision headshots. Tali made quick work of her pylon, overloading its primitive systems and setting her drone out to cover her as she shifted her focus to killing the remaining enemies.

Shepard had a bit more trouble, with Kuril focusing on keeping the Commander pinned down and lacking such technical prowess as Tali. Heavily armored soldiers swarmed his position, and he did his best to take them down as quickly as possible. A batarian came up behind him, and Shepard wasted no time in swiping at him with his biotics, lifting him into the air before grabbing his head and slamming it down onto his knee, caving in the helmet and the skull within.

He whipped back around, hurling a grenade at the shield pylon and firing off a lengthy burst from his assault rifle targeted at the head of another guard, killing him. The grenade detonated, destroying the generator in an instant and even catching some of the guards in the blast. He looked ahead to see Tali scaling the tower, heading for Kuril. Shepard vaulted over his cover, switching to his shotgun in order to blast two more guards as he rushed to meet Tali. A sense of urgency rising within him as he had a horrible premonition of Tali not being able to take the Warden on her own.

Suddenly, Shepard was tackled from behind by a large turian, accompanied by a human, who took him to the ground with a grunt. He heard Tali cry out for help from atop the tower, and his blood coursed with endorphins as he struggled against his own captor's grip, desperate to get to her. In an instant, the grip of the guard atop him slackened and he fell limp, Garrus shooting him through the side of the head.

Shepard took this opportunity to flip over onto his back, grabbing his pistol and swiftly pouring fire into the second guard's chest even as the other human opened fire with a weapon of his own. Shepard pulled him down with his biotics, shoving the twin barrels of his Predator against the guard's forehead and pulling the trigger twice rapidly, putting his final two rounds firmly in the man's brain.

He leapt to his feet, a protective anger taking hold as he sprinted towards the tower, scaling it in less than two seconds. Surveying the scene, Shepard saw Tali pinned to the wall by Kuril, who held a hand cannon to her throat. The anger turned to blind rage as he screamed unintelligibly, charging the Warden with no intent other than to kill him. Kuril reacted, aiming his pistol at the enraged Commander and firing. The shots bounced off of his barriers, and Kuril continued to fire as his expression changed from bitter smugness to pure terror.

The last shot managed to hit Shepard in the left shoulder, digging into his flesh and splitting bone. Pain lanced through his arm, but Shepard did not relent as he grabbed the Warden, his immense strength great enough to lift him bodily from the ground, and slammed him against the wall. His grip around Kuril's neck tightened, and he watched with grim satisfaction as the corrupt turian's eyes bulged from his head as he choked from the fingers digging into his neck.

With a final growl, Shepard released Kuril only to wind back, bringing his fist forward in a biotically-enhanced punch that crushed the Warden's skull, blood and bits of his brain splattering across the wall and onto Shepard's chest and face, his gauntlet now coated in the blue alien gore. Kuril's decapitated body slumped to the floor, almost nothing remaining above his stump of a neck. For a moment, Shepard just stood with his hand against the wall and breathed heavily, letting his anger subside and his cardiovascular system catch up with his muscles, which were starving for oxygen after what they just pulled off.

His left arm hanging limply at his side, Shepard moved to Tali and helped her to her feet, Garrus already waiting at the foot of the tower. "You okay?" Shepard asked simply.

"I'll be okay," Tali shuddered, "That was… something."

Shepard shrugged as he dropped down to the ground below, using his biotics to help Tali fall more gently, "You trying to take on that bastard all by yourself was something. I could say quite a lot right now about how that was a reckless move, and how you should have waited for me to get up there too, but you're smart enough to figure that out without me telling you. Plus, I do that all the time, so I shouldn't be a hypocrite. Instead, I'm just gonna say that that was a gutsy move back there, and that you certainly have grown far more used to the danger of the battlefield since we first met."

Tali didn't respond, instead moving under his shoulder to support him. Garrus kept his weapon at the ready, stepping ahead to take point. Shepard was grateful for the relative rest, leaning on Tali lightly as not to weigh her down beyond her strength, but still thankful for the chance to rest to any extent. Explosions rocked the floor under their feet as they went, and everyone picked up the pace instinctively.

When they finally returned to the dock, Jack was already there. As they entered, Shepard noted that the woman was angry, but in a way that a young child might be when they're confused. She was looking at the Cerberus-branded Normandy SR-2 through the viewport, which seemed to be the source of her anger. Shepard himself could relate to becoming angry as if by flicking a switch; he had just done it a few minutes ago, but as he leaned slightly more on Tali he sighed inwardly, knowing that this was not going to be simple.

As they drew near, Jack noticed them and readied her biotics. Garrus responded by raising his sniper rifle, and Shepard knew that the turian had his crosshairs trained unwaveringly on her temple, ready to pierce her skull with the smallest twitch of his finger.

"We're not here to fight," Shepard said tiredly, "We're here to get you out of here."

An explosion shook the room. Jack snarled, "I'm not going anywhere with Cerberus motherfuckers!" Her biotics flared even more as she eyed Garrus, his weapon still trained on her.

"This place is falling apart," Shepard reasoned as yet another blast shook the ground, "We don't have time to argue!"

"We could subdue her," Garrus muttered flatly, "I know how to take 'em alive."

"Not a good idea," Jack said threateningly.

"Either you leave with us," Shepard growled, his eyes narrowing as his patience wore thin, "or you don't leave at all. Frankly, I don't care which one you choose, but we're leaving, with or without you." Jack paused, looking at the Commander's bloodstained face and armor as his own biotics began to glow. He stood upright, no longer leaning on Tali as he shifted to commanding mode. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off as he walked forward, "I'm not negotiating this. Either you come with us and help us with our mission, or we leave you here to die in the vacuum of space. Decide now, because we're not sticking around any longer."

He brushed past Jack, who simply stood silently as the other two followed their Commander. After a moment, she muttered to herself, "Fuck it," and went after them.

Tali, once aboard the Normandy, joined Shepard in the medbay. As they waited for Doctor Chakwas, she rested her head on his uninjured shoulder, "I like watching you do that."

"Do what?" he asked, gingerly touching his left shoulder.

"Take charge like that," Tali said, "No one gets to mess with Commander Shepard. It's fun to watch you remind people why you have that title."

Shepard smiled, "I'm glad; I suspect that I'll be needing to do that a lot more from now on." He laid back on one of the medical cots, Tali taking a seat on one next to him, "I'm not sure if I said this before, Tali, I probably have, but I'll say it again; I'm glad that I have you with me on this one. You and Garrus both, but I'm glad that I found you so soon."

"I see why," Tali sighed, "I can't imagine trying to do this without anyone from the original team."

He shook his head, "No. I mean, you're right, but I'm glad that I have _you_ with me for this, out of everyone."

Tali froze, feeling herself blushing beneath her visor. How did he always manage to make her do that? "W-well, um," she stammered, suddenly feeling very shy, "Th-thank you, John. That means a lot to me."

Doctor Chakwas walked in, and the two of them ended their conversation. Shepard wouldn't be able to talk much during his operation anyway, seeing as Chakwas needed complete focus to remove the bullet. She gave Tali some medicines, then started her work on the Commander. Tali left the medbay feeling as if her heart could burst from how furiously it was pumping.

She hardly heard what was going on around her as she climbed into a bed to sleep, the sound of blood rushing between her ears drowning out almost all other noise. This was reason to have hope, hope that she could find the courage to confess to Shepard her feelings that she had been keeping a secret for over two years.


	7. Help and Competition

Tali walked through the door into the main cannon's maintenance chamber where Garrus stood at his terminal. At the sound of her approach, the turian turned to face her, leaning back against the terminal as he said, "You're just in time, Tali; I just finished this round of calibrations. You said you wanted to talk about something?"

She nodded, "It's sort of... private. I didn't know who else to ask, since you and Shepard are the only people aboard the Normandy who I trust."

Garrus gestured to the small room and the closed door, "Just you and me in here, Tali. I suspect that EDI might be able to hear us, but she won't tell a soul unless she thinks that it's absolutely necessary," he looked at the ceiling, "Isn't that right, EDI?"

"Absolutely," the AI responded, "Unless the information exchanged might suggest the need for intervention, such as violent intentions or notions of self-harm, the rest of the crew will be 'kept out of the loop' as Mister Vakarian has requested." Tali grimaced slightly at the sound of the EDI's synthetic voice. Since she came aboard the Normandy, Tali had done everything in her power to ignore EDI, and had been somewhat glad when the Artificial Intelligence had gotten the hint and left her alone unless absolutely necessary. But her instinctive distrust of AI was still present, with the geth still acting as a threat to her people.

Tali pushed it out of her mind, focusing on the matter at hand. "I don't exactly know how to ask this, Garrus," she explained slowly, "I searched the extranet for methods, and most people apparently just say that they're asking for a friend, but we both know that none of my friends need this information." She took a deep breath, reminding herself that Garrus would never judge her for even the strangest things. "Garrus," she asked, "If I love someone who was gone for two years without contact with me, someone who is an entirely different species from myself, is that wrong?"

The turian leaned back as he pondered his answer, "No, I don't see why that would be unacceptable. Love conquers all, no matter who it is that you love. I assume that this isn't exactly rhetorical?"

She sighed, "Is it that obvious? I'm trying to find the words to say how I feel, but I just can't bring myself to do it."

Garrus's eyes widened as he stood upright, "Wait, I need to get something straight. Who is this person? I'm not offended or anything if it isn't me, but I feel like I should probably know; we men are pretty oblivious to this kind of thing."

"No!" Tali blurted out without thinking, quickly elaborating, "I mean... oh, keelah... I like you, Garrus, but I think of you as more of a brother than anything else."

He smiled, nodding as he visibly relaxed, "I'm fine with that. I feel the same way about you, actually; I have a sister as it is, and the two of you are nothing alike, but you're like another sibling to me. But if not me, then who is this mystery man? Or mystery woman- nothing wrong with that, either."

"It's Shepard, Garrus," Tali confessed, sitting on a crate as she spoke, "I think I'm in love with John. I've been in love with him since the war against Saren, but never had the courage to tell him before he died. Now he's back, and I feel more scared than ever to tell him how I feel!" She placed her head in her hands, "What do I do, Garrus? I've never felt this way about anyone before!"

Garrus sat next to her, putting a supportive hand on her shoulder, "Shepard's quite a guy, Tali. You're definitely not the only girl who feels this way about him. Now that he's back and better than ever, there'll be plenty of women trying to make a pass at him. I'm not the best with words- I won't be able to tell you what to do or say- but I _can_ tell you that you shouldn't wait. If you do, someone else might beat you to it. If I were you, I would find some time to get him one-on-one and tell him exactly how you feel."

Tali shook her head sadly, "But I'm not you. You're brave enough to put yourself out there like that, but I'm not. I've seen more combat than most quarian marines, taken bullets and battled the resulting sicknesses, even played a direct role in killing Sovereign- killing a _Reaper_\- but for the life of me I can't muster the courage to tell a man that I love him!"

There was a pause, then Garrus said slowly, "Actually, you could argue that you're even braver than I am. I'm always in the back during missions, shooting enemies from afar with a sniper rifle where they can't get me, but you're right in front with your shotgun. I certainly _could_ fight farther up with my assault rifle, but I would feel vulnerable. Meanwhile, you charge straight into the thick of battle right alongside Shepard without a second thought, putting yourself in way more danger than I ever have."

"I do that because I love him," Tali explained, "This is different."

"How?" Garrus pushed, "You're risking everything then, and you'd be risking a lot now, both because of how you feel. The difference is that your life isn't at risk here. But if you're convinced that just confessing isn't the right course of action, then you can try to be subtle. Try to grab his attention, either with actions or with words, or both for that matter, but don't be _too_ subtle, because otherwise he won't notice. Try to build your confidence around him by bringing him to you a little. I can't exactly advise you on how to do that, but that's my alternative solution to your problem. Just don't wait; others are bound to try to win him over, too."

Tali smiled beneath her visor, "Th-thank you, Garrus. I think you know more about this kind of thing than you give yourself credit for."

Garrus chuckled, standing up and returning to his terminal, "Well, _I_ think that you're braver than you realize. Good luck with love, Tali."

"And you with your calibrations, Garrus," Tali said over her shoulder as she left. She had entered that room feeling nervous and unsure, but she left feeling invigorated and confident in herself. She still had no idea what she was going to do, but at least now she had something to start from. As she took the elevator down to engineering, her mind raced to brainstorm ideas to get Shepard's attention. She could drop hints in conversation, asking questions and making subtle remarks, but she needed another means of catching his eye.

"_Catch his eye..._" Tali placed one hand on her hip. When it came to her physical assets, her waist was her most prominent. She never tried to draw attention to it, always feeling embarrassed whenever people would look at her, but perhaps she could use it to her advantage. On the original Normandy, Tali had caught Shepard looking at her rear on several occasions but had never spoken to him about it. This was not only because it would be an uncomfortable topic, but also because she let him believe that she was unaware. He had only ever taken glances, though; he was always too busy trying to see her face behind her visor.

Tali was somewhat reluctant to attract Shepard with her body, but she took some comfort in the fact that her main method of choice was going to be through communication, not seduction. She could use her assets to help draw his attention, then start dropping more verbal hints once she had it. Tali did not want this to be a physical attraction from Shepard, nor did she want to become obsessed with him. She would try to figure out if he was at all interested, and accept the result whether she liked it or not. She could not force him to love her, she could only let him know that she was there.

The elevator door opened, and Tali walked to her terminal to begin working. It was difficult to focus on her work with her mind so occupied on her Commander, but Tali managed to be productive regardless. It helped that she was able to perform most of her tasks with little to no thought, having done them so many times that it was all instinct at this point. After a few hours, she heard footsteps approaching from behind. Tali turned to see Shepard entering, drenched in sweat and smiling exhaustedly. The sight brought her more pleasure than she would have liked to admit, and the fact that he was smiling at _her_ only served to increase the feeling.

"Shepard," She greeted, quickly regaining her composure, "Not that I'm complaining, but what are you doing in Engineering?"

"Miranda wanted to start training me with my new biotics," he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, and Tali looked to see the Cerberus agent standing somewhat impatiently in the doorway, "Says I need to learn to properly use my abilities before I end up melting my implant. Been at it for a few hours now, and I'm about ready to pass out from hunger _and_ fatigue!"

Tali stepped forward, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Just being around to talk to is more than enough," Shepard said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, "You're already my Chief Engineer, and I think that asking much more from you would be cruel."

Realizing that this was the perfect opportunity to say something, she offered brightly, "Maybe we could talk more later, then? After you've rested and I've finished for the day?"

Shepard smiled warmly, "Sounds like a plan to me." He waved in parting, walking back towards the elevator, and Tali felt a rush as she turned back to her terminal. She was nervous, of course, but she was excited more than anything. She thanked The Ancestors for granting her such luck, to be given such a chance on the very same day that she had gone to Garrus for advice. Tali felt another presence behind her, and turned once more to see Miranda standing uncomfortably close, murder in her eyes.

"I know what you're trying to do," she snarled, "It won't work. Shepard deserves more than some little quarian girl who can't even show her face. He needs a _real_ woman, so you'd best leave him to me. Otherwise, you might get _hurt_. Understand?"

Tali trembled, doing her best to stand her ground as Miranda backed her up against the terminal, "Sh-Shepard deserves to... to have whoever _he_ thinks is right for him."

This only seemed to aggravate Miranda further. "_I__'m_ right for him," she hissed, "I am genetically engineered to be _perfect_. You-"

She was cut off by Kenneth Donnelly stepping between them, meeting Miranda's gaze, "I don't know what's going on here, Miranda, but you need to back off."

"_I_ know what happened," Gabriella Daniels said, putting a hand on Miranda's shoulder to pry her away, "And Tali's right."

"Tali'Zorah has done nothing but good for us," Ken added, holding his defensive position in front of Tali, "We engineers stick together. Lay off."

Miranda begrudgingly left, saying over her shoulder, "Stay out of my way, princess, or next time I won't let these two stop me."

The door closed, and Tali let out a breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding, slumping against her terminal. "Thank you, you two," She trembled, letting her heart return to a somewhat normal pace, "Thank you."

Ken nodded, returning to his post while Gabby placed a hand on Tali's shoulder. "I also saw what you were trying to do," she said quietly, "And I think that you should go for it." She gave a small smile, then walked away to work beside Ken again.

Tali focused on finishing her work as soon as possible while still ensuring that her work quality was not affected. She still found herself thinking about how to go about telling Shepard how she felt, but now her thoughts were also plagued by the image of Miranda's murderous expression and the sound of her voice, dripping with hatred. Miranda had never hidden the fact that she disliked Tali's relationship with the Commander, but now it was going too far. Tali resolved to use every tool at her disposal during the next mission in order to learn Shepard's feelings.

...

"I think that the two of you are already excellent friends," Yeoman Kelly Chambers said with her usual gentle tone, "It's not unusual to be feeling this way."

"I don't know what I'm feeling," Shepard said frustratedly. He had come to Kelly for counseling and advice regarding Tali'Zorah. Since he had come back to life and found the quarian woman again, the Commander had found himself acting abnormally around her. Over the past few missions, Shepard had found himself reacting with extreme anger whenever she was in danger, such as the fight with the YMIR mech on Freedom's Progress when he had first found her, or how he had slaughtered Kuril when the corrupt Warden had attacked her. Now he sat in his quarters with Kelly, trying to process everything. "I feel like I need to protect her," Shepard described, "But not to the point of babying her. I'm perfectly comfortable with her coming along on missions and more than confident in her ability to take care of herself, but when she's in danger, everything just stops mattering to me except for her survival. Even my own life takes a backseat. When I see her, I want to talk- it doesn't matter what- and just... be near her. Part of me wants to impress her, but I also feel like I shouldn't go out of my way."

Chambers sighed, smiling as she shook her head, "Commander, you really are something else. I'm sure all this constant business with the Reapers isn't exactly helping, but it seems to me like your subconscious has militarized your emotions. I guess this new development is good, then; it's something to remind you that life isn't just the battlefield."

"Stop talking in riddles," Shepard demanded, "You seem to know what this is, and I don't. Just tell me what it is that I'm experiencing."

"You really don't know?" She said in mild disbelief, "_Love_, Commander. You're in love with Tali'Zorah! You spend so much time fighting alongside her that you don't let it develop off of the battlefield. Like I said: this might be a good reminder to your subconscious that such emotions can be felt and expressed under much more... peaceful conditions."

He realized that she was right. Kelly stood up from her seat, her job done, and bid him farewell as she left. Shepard sat silently on his couch, dumbfounded by the implications of this revelation. What did Tali think of all this? Should he tell her, or should he wait for her to show signs of reciprocation? He pondered these questions until he heard the door open and Tali herself walked through, looking as tired as Shepard felt. He realized now that he had not slept at all since he had last spoken to Tali, or rested much aside from eating the lost calories from his biotic marathon. He greeted her with a wave.

"I'm sorry, John," Tali sighed as she sat beside him, "I said that I wanted to chat, but I'm not sure how well I can focus on anything. I've been on my feet all day, and I'm really tired."

"It's alright," Shepard reassured her, "I'm exhausted, too. I completely forgot that we had agreed to do this until now, which I apologize for."

Tali looked at him, "Have you slept at all since we spoke earlier?"

"Nope. I had planned on sleeping before now, but completely forgot," he said with a yawn, "What about you?"

"I... haven't slept in well over a day," she admitted sheepishly, "I've been working a lot."

"Well," Shepard said, laying down, "I see no reason that we can't sleep now, seeing as neither of us are in any sort of shape for talking."

Tali's glowing eyes widened with surprise, "Y-you mean here? S-sleep here, t-together?"

He shrugged, "I don't see a problem with it if you don't. Wouldn't be the first time we did, though it will be the first time that we do _voluntarily_." Shepard thought back to the mission on Noveria, when night had fallen while they had been driving back from the rachni-infested research facility. It had been far too dark to go any farther, and the snowstorm had made the external lights useless. Liara, after witnessing the death of her own mother, had taken comfort in Garrus's presence and had slept with him in the insulated gunner's chamber. Shepard had been able to endure the cold since the Mako's hull blocked the wind just fine, but Tali had been entirely unprepared. She had come to him, shivering like a sapient earthquake, and asked if he knew of any way for her to warm up.

She had not asked for anything in specific, but Shepard had offered that she simply sleep with him in order to absorb his own body heat. No blanket was available, and overheating a weapon would necessitate firing it, which would damage the hull if done inside and possibly freeze him if done outside, since the bitter cold would only serve to cool the weapon down more rapidly. His solution had been basic, almost primitive, but it had worked; Tali had quickly fallen asleep and Shepard soon followed, her own heat serving to warm him up as well.

Now, in the Captain's Cabin on the Normandy SR-2, over two years later, Shepard suggested the same thing, except this time it was simply because they were both tired and enjoyed the other's company. Tali hesitated, recalling the same night on Noveria, before deciding not to squander this chance and accepting the offer, lying down between Shepard and the back of the couch before rolling so that she was partially on top of him, her head resting on his collarbone. From sheer exhaustion, both of them slipped into unconsciousness, both happy to be with the one that they loved, but neither aware that the other felt the same way.

* * *

**A/N: Alriiiight! I finally got around to continuing this talimance, and let me tell you: I pounded out this chapter in just a few hours, taking full advantage of my "writing mood" as I call it, and getting this bad boy done! It should come as no shock that I try to write when I'm in the mood to, since my quality drops to a scary degree if I force myself to get it done. This does mean that updates come slower, but I hope that they are much more enjoyable when I do get around to them!**

**I'm trying to practice some actual development of relationships between characters (something that I struggle at), and as you can see, I'm trying to take advantage of the fact that this happens in the second game, sort of depicting what happened in the first game in this storyline. I plan on pulling this string at least a few more times, especially since I feel that it is an excellent tool for explaining why Tali and Shepard are falling in love so quickly without just saying, "Stuff happened in the first game." That would be a total cop-out. I do not plan on making a prequel, but I hope that the flashbacks like the Noveria one here will be enough to reveal relevant information.**

**That's all for now. Stay tuned for more chapters in the future, and make sure to PM me or leave a review telling me what you think. As always, have fun and stay safe out there!**

**-VV**


	8. Things New and Old

As the Normandy docked, and they stepped out onto the platform, the first thing that stood out was how shockingly familiar the Citadel was. After two years, John Shepard had expected some drastic changes in the wake of Sovereign's attack. But it was as though everyone had already forgotten the Reaper threat, and it was all just business as usual. As he, Garrus, and Tali walked toward the security checkpoint, there was one thing that stood out: humans were at the top of the societal food chain. To their left, a turian argued with a human C-Sec worker over travel regulations. Evidently, he was accusing her of racism after he was not allowed to bring a sixteen-inch serrated blade onto a public transport shuttle. Shepard tensed slightly in annoyance; it would be racist if they _did_ make an exception to the rule just because he was a turian. The woman behind the counter did her best to maintain a calm front, but the Commander could tell that she was thinking the exact same thing.

To their right was a group of Systems Alliance trainees being lectured by their CO. One of the boys was ordered to recite one of Newton's laws of motion, while another was chewed out for "eyeballing" a shot from their ship's cannon. While Shepard understood the need for certainty when it came to such destructive weapons, reliance on a computer was not something that he appreciated. The firing solution from the ship's computer was meant to assist the gunner, not do all the work for them. Machines could malfunction and break down, and an over-reliance on them could spell disaster for a ship's crew in the case of a major failure. If they were just going to let the computer do the gunner's job, why even have a person in the gunner's seat? Why have a seat at all? So much had changed during the past two years, yet things had somehow managed to stay the same.

"Two years," Shepard muttered, "Two damn years, and all we've done is put humanity in the spotlight. Nothing to prepare for the Reapers, despite the fact that we know they're coming for us. As usual, politics is getting in the way of action."

"Why do you think I stopped operating under a government?" Garrus agreed, "Nothing ever gets done when politicians get involved. A bunch of self-centered jackasses who only care about public image instead of actually doing their jobs. In C-Sec, every case meant a mountain of paperwork, and you had to jump through so many hoops just to fire a single shot. It's why I was considered something of a renegade; several times, I just ignored the rules and got the job done. On Omega, I was able to do ten times more than I ever could here."

Shepard grinned slightly, "That's also because Omega is so stuffed with crime and scum, you hardly need to aim in order to hit someone who needs a bullet in the brain. But I get what you mean. That's why I loved being a Spectre; above all the regulations and paperwork, but not above ethical boundaries. And with resources to boot!"

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Tali looking at him. "Remember, Shepard, that anarchy isn't exactly desirable either," she reminded him, "Those laws and rules exist to ensure that innocent people don't get hurt due to reckless actions by authorities. Authorities like _us_. And nothing ever gets done without regulations, either. If we didn't strictly adhere to our laws, my people would have died out long ago."

The Commander sighed, knowing that she was right. It wasn't just true for the quarians; a lawless society was just as inefficient as a modern one, with the difference being that anarchy was far more dangerous for the people as a whole. And laws were useless if not enforced since there would be no reason for people to follow them, and that would be functionally identical to lawlessness. Shepard knew that Tali wasn't trying to challenge him; she understood his hatred for laws that got in the way of justice. To him, they only worked against the authorities who were meant to enforce them.

It wouldn't help that humanity was now more or less the leading race on the Citadel. They had already been looked down upon by the rest of the galaxy, and now people could use that as an excuse to try and get around the rules when it was convenient for them. The turian with the serrated blade was a perfect example of this, and of how such tactics would not succeed so easily. Shepard took a deep breath to calm himself, remembering that he wasn't here to get involved in politics and laws. He was here to work towards stopping the Collectors, and by extent the Reapers, from terrorizing the outer colonies. Once again, it had fallen to him to deal with the Reaper threat.

Stepping into the short hallway, a scanner passed over the group to identify them. When it recognized Shepard, it blared an alert to the C-Sec officer at the terminal near the other end of the corridor. The turian punched a command into the terminal, activating his commlink. "Shut it down," he said, and after a pause, continued, "What? Do you seriously think... yeah, okay." It was clear that they were missing the other end of the conversation, and consequently some context. "Sorry for the inconvenience, sir," the turian spoke to Shepard, "Our scanners are picking up false readings. They seem to think that you're, uh, dead."

"I've been getting that a lot," Shepard shrugged, "I've been dark for a couple of years."

"Would you mind checking in with my Captain?" the officer gestured to the door behind him, "He can reinstate you into our system." Shepard nodded his thanks to the officer as he passed opened the door and passed through, thankful that he hadn't asked many questions. The Commander's resurrection was not something that was easy to explain, nor was it something that people tended to believe. Shepard himself was still having a hard time believing it, and part of him persistently wondered if this was some crazy dying dream or some sort of afterlife.

On the other side of the door, they were greeted with the sound of Captain Bailey speaking to one of his subordinates. "You'll have to make him scream a little," he said firmly, "He's not going to tell you everything just 'cause you ask."

"I-I know, sir," the woman responded, not looking away from her workstation.

"If you don't have the stomach, or you're worried about being reported, I can take care of it."

"No, sir!" She said quickly, "I can handle it." Bailey was certainly the type of officer that Shepard could appreciate. He had known him for all of fifteen seconds, and already it was obvious that the Captain took no nonsense, and was more focused on doing his job than doing things by the book. Beside him, Garrus seemed to be thinking the same thing, nodding approvingly at what he saw.

At the Commander's approach, Bailey took one glance at the display in front of him, "I see the problem already, Commander Shepard. My console says you're dead."

"I assume that you don't believe that?" Shepard raised an eyebrow, "I don't think dead men have a pulse. Your Sargeant said that you could reinstate me."

"Usually," Bailey explained, "You'd have to go through the Station Security Administration to reactivate your IDs. Then to Customs and Immigration to regain access to the Citadel itself. And probably stop by the treasury. "Spending a year dead" is a popular tax dodge." There was a pause as the two men looked at each other. Shepard's eyes narrowed as he imagined how long it would take to go through this process, jumping through hoops in the same manner that he had just described his hatred for a few minutes prior. "But," the Captain broke the silence, "I can see you're a busy man. So how about I just press this button right here, and we call it done?"

Shepard sighed in relief, glad that he had been right to think that Bailey wasn't one for pointless security measures and regulations. "That sounds like a plan to me." Before they left, Bailey suggested that they head to the Presidium to speak with the Council. It made sense; they would want to know that their Spectre was back from the dead.

This was a convenient task, since Shepard was already planning on visiting the Presidium. The reason that he had come to the Citadel in the first place was to meet the man who had set him on the warpath against the Reapers two years ago. Now that he was here, though, the Commander decided to take a detour and explore the Zakera Ward a little. Despite the annoyances that had managed to remain after two years, there were bound to be new things to see when it came to the Citadel itself. He had been dead for two years; the Council could wait for a few more minutes as he gathered his bearings.

The "Avina" Virtual Intelligence was still as bothersome as ever, with her high-pitched voice and unnatural politeness that almost felt like mockery. During the attack on the Citadel, there had been an Avina terminal that was still active, and had been issuing an evacuation order in that same calm, high-pitched tone. Shepard had shot the terminal without hesitation. Presently, his hand twitched by his sidearm as he suppressed the urge to see this terminal meet the same fate.

The trio headed down several flights of stairs to the shops below, taking in the various sights and vendors as they went. Along the way, Shepard spotted a man walking in the opposite direction with a prosthetic leg that was causing him to walk with an awkward limp. He appeared to be in his mid-forties, and was carrying several packages in his arms. Shepard stopped next to him, "Need some help with that?"

The man looked at him for a moment, as if making sure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. "Well, I'll be damned," he said, "Commander Shepard, back from the dead after, what, two years? Got some nice new scars, I see." It was clear that the man was referring to the Commander's facial scars from the Lazarus project. He gave him a casual salute balancing his load on one arm, "Alvin York, 43rd Grenadiers. Retired now, as you can see," he gestured to his leg, "But it's good to see that we still have some decent folks in the service. I appreciate the offer, Commander, but I'll be damned if I can't carry a few supplies back to the garage."

"If you say so," Shepard returned the salute, "Nice meeting you, Alvin."

"Likewise," Alvin reached into his pocket, producing a small business card, "Ever need something from an old grease monkey like me, just stop by the shop. We're small, but capable." And with that, he continued on his way, leaving the three of them to resume their business.

As they stepped out onto level 28, which held multiple shops for them to explore, Shepard overheard one of the vendors ask someone: "Ever had ramen? It's a delicacy back on Earth." He scowled at the man, who was currently looking the other way. Unless things had changed far more drastically on Earth over the past two years than on the Citadel, this man was either horribly mistaken or blatantly lying. Probably the latter, he thought as he rolled his eyes and continued walking; the vendor most likely just wanted to bait people into buying from him.

Mere seconds later, Shepard's attention was drawn to a small argument happening between a quarian, a volus, and a human C-Sec officer. Taking a moment to listen in, Shepard quickly gathered that the volus was accusing the quarian of pickpocketing his credit chit. In response, the quarian was trying desperately to defend herself against this accusation. The C-Sec officer almost seemed bored by the whole ordeal, speaking in a monotonous tone that suggested that he would rather have been doing almost anything else at that moment.

Tali, standing beside her Commander, saw the exact same thing. And she was visibly frustrated by what she saw. "Just because she's a quarian," Tali fumed quietly, "she has to be a thief? That bosh'tet could have dropped his chit somewhere, or misplaced it, but no- the _only_ explanation is that it this girl stole it!"

Deciding that it was probably a good idea to intervene, if only to prevent Tali from murdering the volus in a blind rage, Shepard stepped forward and turned to the accused quarian. "You say you're falsely accused?" He asked evenly, hiding the fact that he, too, was rather annoyed at this scene.

"I was walking to the used ship dealer when he barged into me outside the Sirta Foundation," the quarian explained, "He didn't stop or say he was sorry. A minute later, he runs up with C-Sec and accuses me of stealing his damn chit!"

A thought struck him, "Do you spend a lot of time at the used ship dealer?"

"Yeah," she admitted, "They have a lot of nice models. I'd like to buy one and take it back to the fleet, but..." She trailed off.

"Your Pilgrimage isn't going so well, is it?" Tali asked, her anger replaced with sympathy.

The younger quarian sighed, "No. I-I came here thinking there'd be a lot of work. EVA stuff. Salvage. Fixing all the damage the geth attack caused. Everywhere I went to apply, signs said 'Not hiring quarians.' And the other people would give me mean looks."

Shepard thought back to Alvin York, and the business card that the veteran had given him. The card itself was rather old-fashioned, but that was irrelevant; Alvin had seemed like a half-decent person who could use a hand with his business. And by the sound of it, that business dealt with mechanical engineering; a job perfect for a quarian down on her luck. And, if Shepard had judged the man's personality correctly, he might be willing to hire this young woman without being a total jackass. But for now, the current situation took priority.

He turned to the volus, steeling himself for what he was sure would be a test of his patience. "You say she stole your credit chit?"

"She must have," the volus answered, "When I left the Sirta Foundation store, she ran right into me."

Shepard pinched the bridge of his nose, already irritated with this living balloon, "And how exactly does running into you prove that she stole your chit?"

"That's how pickpockets work. They bump into you and use that as a cover for rifling your pockets. You can't turn your back on these clanless quarians. Thieves, all of them."

Before Shepard could respond, Tali stepped forward, her anger having returned. "Quarians are only forced to steal when people like you won't let them have real jobs!"

"And to think my taxes pay to support you here," the volus sneered, "Go back to your fleet, clanless."

"I am clan Zorah," Tali hissed, "crew of starship Neema. And you are an idiot!"

The Commander crouched down so that he was at eye level with the volus, narrowing his eyes, "This 'clanless' could disassemble that pressure suit of yours in _seconds_ with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back. I, on the other hand, prefer methods that require a bit less finesse." He moved his hand to draw attention to the Predator hand cannon at his hip, without making it look like he was going to draw. His point was made crystal clear, though.

"Hey!" The C-Sec officer barked, "Both of you, calm down." He then turned to the volus, "Kor Tun, I know you're upset, but that's no excuse to insult everyone around you."

"Let's look around," Shepard muttered to Tali, "If he _did_ leave it somewhere, we might be able to find it. You and Garrus search this main area, and I'll look in the shops." Tali agreed, walking away to alert Garrus of their mission. The turian sniper had broken away from the group to strike up a conversation with one of the shop owners, probably trying to convince them to sell him some item or another at a reduced price. Shepard, in turn, moved to the nearest store in order to ask the attendant if they knew anything. The worst that could happen was that they didn't have any information.

Naturally, it wasn't so easy. The first few attendants knew nothing about a missing credit chit, and almost immediately tried to change the subject to sell him something. But Shepard's luck took a turn for the better when he got an affirmative response from a salarian at Saronis Applications. "He bought some environmental system drivers, then left without his chit," the attendant explained, "I didn't notice he'd left it until he was already gone. If you see him, tell him I have it here behind the counter."

"I'll return it to him," Shepard offered, extending a hand to take the chit.

The salarian hesitated, "How do I know you aren't just trying to pull a fast one on me? This would be an awfully easy way to steal his money."

He grinned, "I'm Commander Shepard. I don't have a reason to steal whatever money is on that chit." The attendant accepted this logic, handing over the small device and thanking him for resolving the situation. As he walked away, Shepard realized that the salarian hadn't tried to sell him anything. This, ironically, almost made him want to go back and make a purchase in order to encourage that kind of behavior. Regrouping with Tali and Garrus, Shepard held out the chit for them to see. "He left it at one of the stores," he explained, "The attendant was holding it for him."

Returning to the spot where the volus was still trying to get the young woman arrested, Shepard got his attention before chucking the chit at him. The throw wasn't nearly hard enough to do any damage, but it was enough to give the self-important little alien a shock. "You forgot this at Saronis Applications. The clerk was holding it for you."

"Oh," Kor Tun stammered, "Well. The quarian could have stolen it."

"I'll close this event report," the C-Sec officer said turning to the young woman, "But I'll be watching you. Get a permanent residence, or I'll run you in for vagrancy."

With that, Shepard decided that he had had enough. He stormed forward, grabbing the officer by the shoulder as he turned to leave. "Are you shitting me?"

"What?" Kor Tun exclaimed.

Shepard stood over the volus, not bothering to crouch down this time; he was much more content to watch the little alien squirm under his much greater height. "You falsely accuse this girl of stealing from you, do your damndest to get her _arrested_. All you have to say is that she _could have_ stolen it!?" He planted his boot on the volus's chest, pushing him back several feet. He then turned to the officer, grabbing him by the collar, "And you. She gets harassed and insulted by this prick, and you throw in a threat to arrest her for vagrancy? Maybe you should actually let her try to find a place to stay before you add insult to injury!"

"How about I run you in for obstruction of justice?" The officer retorted. Shepard released him, taking a step back.

"According to your records, I'm not even alive," he said, forcing himself to calm down, "Good luck trying to arrest a dead man. Get out of here. Both of you."

The quarian woman turned to him after the other two left, "Thank you. I-I wish that I could give you something more than words."

"Don't thank me yet," Shepard looked at the business card that Alvin York had given him, "I might know a place that'll actually hire you. No guarantees, but it's worth a shot."

They led the woman, who's name they learned was Lia'Vael, to the address on the card. It was certainly a fine coincidence that Shepard had happened to meet Alvin mere minutes before this whole mess, but he had to remember that he had _literally_ come back from the dead; if nothing else, Shepard was extremely lucky. When they arrived at the address, the first thing that he noticed was that Alvin had been right: this was a small business indeed. It was little more than a garage workshop, with a partially dismantled skycar taking up the majority of the floor space. Alvin himself was underneath the vehicle, working on some component or another.

Once he realized that he had company, the old veteran pulled himself out from beneath the skycar, brought himself to his feet, and wiped his hands on a heavily stained oil rag as he looked over at them. "Ah, Commander!" He greeted them, "Didn't expect you to need something so soon! Something you need?"

Lia stepped forward. "This is Lia'Vael," Shepard explained, "She needs a job so that she can afford to stay someplace. Otherwise, C-Sec is threatening to arrest her for vagrancy."

Alvin walked forward, shaking his head, "Sorry, but this little shop doesn't bring in enough credits to hire someone."

From the back of the workshop, a much younger man came down the stairs with a large box. "Hey, dad," he called, "I got the parts you needed from the back." He set the box down, wiping his brow before looking to see the four newcomers. "Oh! We have customers?"

Alvin jerked a thumb at the younger man, "This is my son, Matt. He's the only other person who works here with me."

Matt approached the group, "Are we hiring someone from this party?"

"No," the veteran shook his head again, "Like I said: I don't have the money to give anyone proper payment. I'm sorry, but that's how it is."

"Please, sir," Lia begged, "I just need enough to get a permanent residence."

Suddenly, Alvin's expression changed. Matt seemed to know what his father was thinking, since he spoke up, "How about a roof over your head, a warm bed to sleep in, and three squares a day? We can't pay you, but I reckon we can afford to support another pair of working hands! It's a lot cheaper, if my math is good."

"It always is, Matt," the veteran said, "It always is." He squinted at Lia, looking her over, "I've got some more errands to run. Matt can see if you fit the bill." With that, he walked away and down the street. His son stepped forward, smiling warmly. Shepard and company hung back, watching silently. He wanted to ensure that this went smoothly.

Matt stepped forward and extended a hand, "Nice to meetcha! I'm Matthew York, though I guess you already knew that."

"L-Lia'Vael," the quarian answered, shaking his hand.

"That's a nice name," Matt nodded, stepping back and gesturing to the room, "First: see any tools here that ya don't recognize?"

Lia looked around, "Not that I can see."

"Good," he beamed, "Welcome to your new job! Don't worry about my old man; he's ex-military, and still has some of that hard discipline going on."

It was a shockingly simple conclusion, but it was enough for Shepard to be satisfied. Lia thanked them for helping her, then went followed her new partner as he showed her around her new accommodations. As they left, Tali appeared at his side. "You didn't have to do that, John," she said quietly, "Thank you."

Shepard shrugged, "I guess I just have a soft spot for quarians in need of help."

"I wonder where you get that from," Garrus joked. Shepard chucked. He was right; they had first met Tali in a back alley, where she was being attacked by Saren's goons. Not quite the same situation, but the Commander still found it funny.

"Did you notice?" Tali asked suddenly.

"Notice what?"

She gestured back toward the garage, "Lia; I think she has something of a crush on Matt."

Shepard grinned, raising an eyebrow, "How can you tell? You've known her for half an hour, and him for five minutes. And they've known each other for about that long, too."

Tali shrugged, "Sometimes, all it takes is for a person to rescue you to develop feelings. That, and a great first impression personality-wise."

"You sound like you speak from experience," Garrus interjected.

"Maybe I am," Tali responded suggestively, "What better way to know?"

Shepard had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but he dismissed it for the time being. For now, he needed to stop putting off his meeting with the Council, finally reunite with Councilor Anderson- formerly Captain Anderson. After two years, he hoped that the leadership had changed for the better. But deep down he knew that, of all the things that had changed in his absence, the politics would not be among them.

* * *

**A/N: Finally, after far too long, Tali-Path is back! When I said I was putting it on hiatus, I had no intention of said hiatus lasting over two and a half months. And for that, I sincerely apologize. I will be the first to admit that I was neglecting this story, and that I have no good excuse for that. However, now that I've returned to working on it, I would like to inform you all that I have a job that has me working long hours. There is no time in my schedule for writing on weekdays, and they even have me working some Saturdays. This is not an excuse for the long hiatus; it is an explanation of why updates will be slow to come out. Not two-and-a-half-months-at-a-time slow, but slower than they once were. **

**I want to publicly thank lambo105 for pushing me to end the hiatus. They weren't afraid to call me out and crack the whip at me, and I appreciate that more than words can describe. Especially since they weren't rude or overbearing about it- just blunt and honest. They reminded me of a big part of the reason why I started writing in the first place: to create the content that I wanted but could not find. I wanted to write the stories that I wanted to see, and help put more content out there for other people to read and enjoy. They reminded me that, all too often, stories such as this one are abandoned under the guise of a "hiatus" or simply dropped. In both cases, it is most often because the author lost interest. That was why the hiatus on this story happened in the first place: I had started to burn out on it, and wanted to prevent that. But it turned into a much longer time away than I had planned, and I'm honestly not sure how long it would have taken, had lambo105 not come and brought me back down to Earth. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.**

**And thank you to everyone who stuck it out and stayed with this story through the hiatus, even when you would have been completely justified in leaving. Some of you were here for all two and a half months, and some of you came in partway through that time and put your faith in my word that I would be back. I thank you all for reinforcing my motivation to continue. And once again, I apologize for leaving you all in the dark for so long. I really can't thank you enough.**

**The characters of Alvin and Matthew York in this chapter are actually an homage to a story that a friend of mine had wanted to write, but never did. He had wanted to write a story revolving around a mechanic and his son on the Citadel, focusing on the much less glorious life that would exist where the player would never have seen. Lia'Vael was also going to be brought in as a major character in that story, over time possibly developing a relationship with Matt as they help each other through their struggles, and learn from each other, growing as people. Sadly, my friend never wrote the story, let alone published it. So he let me do this little cameo as a bit of a gift to him.**

**Tali-Path is back, folks. It's gonna be slow-going, update-wise, but it's back and here to stay until completion.**

**And as always, have fun and stay safe out there! -VV**


	9. Long Time Coming

The mission to retrieve Dr. Okeer, the krogan warlord, hadn't gone as smoothly as they had hoped. The Blue Suns mercenary group had taken control of Korlus, and were using Okeer to breed an army of battle-ready krogan clones. The Normandy ground team had fought their way through the mercs to find that their cloning plan was actively backfiring on them, as the krogan soldiers were fighting against their supposed masters. One surviving clone deliberately helped the squad take down a group of mercs before opening up a path forward.

Before they found Okeer, the team ran into Rana Thanoptis, an asari neurospecialist whom Shepard had allowed to escape from Saren's base on Virmire during their assault two years ago. This time, though, the Commander was not so merciful. He shot her in the head, claiming that he "didn't give third chances." Both Garrus and Tali voiced their opinions that this was rather harsh, but at that point it was too late. Shepard had given Rana a second chance, she had wasted it, and it was understandable that he wasn't keen on making the same mistake twice.

Okeer ended up dead, and though they couldn't save him, they were able to salvage a clone that he claimed was genetically perfect. Naturally, Shepard had released this clone from his tube in an effort to recruit him. The krogan predictably turned violent, but the Commander was able to talk him down. It certainly helped that he did so while holding a pistol to the clone's abdomen. The krogan dubbed himself "Grunt," claiming that the word had no meaning, making it perfect for him. He agreed to serve under Commander Shepard for the promise of plentiful bloodshed.

When Tali'Zorah heard about Shepard's endangerment, her short-lived panic attack told her that she couldn't wait any longer to confess to him. She was worried about his safety aboard his _own ship_. He hadn't really even been at risk- his biotics could easily have thwarted Grunt- and yet Tali found herself panicking that she might lose him again. On Korlus, she had needed to repeatedly remind herself to focus on the task at hand, and not on her Commander's skillful execution of the team's objectives.

In the short time she had spent aboard the Normandy, Tali had developed a borderline obsession with her feelings for Shepard. It was no longer a question of how he might react; it was a question of whether or not she would get the chance to say anything and see that reaction. Even if he rejected her, Tali knew she would feel better than if Shepard died again before she could tell him how she felt.

So when she asked to see him privately in his personal quarters, the young woman was prepared to accept rejection. Tali steeled herself against her fears, denying herself the luxury of second thoughts or backup plans as she rode the elevator up to Shepard's cabin. She had already established that she had to do this now; there was no turning back. No bailing out at the last second. He would learn how she felt, and he would tell her if he felt the same way.

"Be direct," Tali whispered to herself, "Don't give yourself time to back out."

The elevator door opened, and Tali stepped through to approach the door to Shepard's quarters. At that moment, she wished that there could have been just one door. That way, she would have less time to doubt herself and one less chance to talk herself out of this. It was strange; over the past two years, she had grown into a strong young woman compared to the naive quarian girl that Shepard had saved on the Citadel two years ago. And yet, somehow, Shepard made her feel like that helpless little bundle of nerves again. Tali had stared death in the face alongside him time and time again, and yet she was terrified of sitting down and talking with him.

But she had already committed herself to this. Tali took a deep breath, trying one last time to force herself to relax. Once again, she was met with minimal success, managing to focus her thoughts but failing to stop her heart from pounding in her chest like it was trying to escape. The door was already unlocked, so she opened it and stepped through. Shepard was seated at his desk, working at his personal terminal. He turned and smiled as she entered, finishing what he was doing before standing up and motioning for her to come in. Now there _really_ was no going back.

Tali quickly joined him as he sat down on the couch. "So, you wanted to talk to me about something?" Shepard asked, leaning back in his seat.

"Y-yes," she answered, realizing that she hadn't thought of what she was going to say, "I've, um… since you came back… I-I-"

"Slow down, Tali," Shepard interrupted, leaning forward with a sympathetic expression, "Take a deep breath, calm down, and just say what you need to say. Don't worry about your exact wording."

His supportive action both calmed her and made her more nervous at the same time. Tali did as he suggested, once again taking a deep breath and assembling the words in her mind. "Two years ago, I thought that I had lost you forever. I cried myself to sleep nearly every night for almost two years. Now that you're back, and we're putting ourselves in danger again, I don't think that I can survive losing you again like that. I never got the chance to tell you then, and I'm not making the same mistake again."

"Tali, what are you getting at?"

"I've tried to think of how to say it at least a hundred times," Tali explained, hardly hearing him over the sound of blood rushing between her ears, "And I can never get it right. So I'm just going to say it: I love you, John."

There was a moment of silence as Shepard processed this confession. He stared intensely at the floor, his face devoid of emotion. Tali was shocked that her heart didn't give out with how hard it was hammering in her chest. She wanted to run, to disappear, but instead she remained still, silently waiting for Shepard's response. It was only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" He asked, looking up at her, "Why didn't you tell me back then?"

"Because I was scared."

"Are you scared now?"

"Y-yes…"

Shepard moved beside her, pulling her to him with one muscular arm. "Well, don't be," he smiled gently, "Because I love you too, Tali. And if I really am the best that humanity has to offer like everyone says I am, then I can't think of anyone more deserving of the best that _I_ have to offer."

Tali paused. "W-what?"

He chuckled, "A poet I am not! What I'm trying to say is that you're the best, most talented person that I know."

Now it was Tali who was silent for a moment. She looked up at Shepard with wide eyes, trembling slightly. Then the tears came, and she couldn't stop them if she had wanted to. Normally, she would do everything in her power to keep such outbursts to herself, but in that moment she felt like it was safe to cry. She hugged Shepard tightly, tucking herself into a ball against his chest as she cried quietly.

"Woah, what's with the waterworks?" He held her gently, unsure of what was going on. "Did I say something?"

"I-I was w-worried," Tali stammered as she began to recompose herself, "that I wasn't g-good enough for you. I thought-"

Shepard cut her off, "You've been talking to Miranda, haven't you?" Tali nodded. "I knew it. You may have been scared to let me know how you felt, but she's been on me like an overly-attached tick in a Cerberus-branded catsuit. I don't know what she thinks she'll accomplish by being a bitch to everyone."

"She's Cerberus," Tali said resentfully, sniffing as her short outburst came to an end, "Of course she would treat me like that. She thinks that she's better than everyone. At least Jacob _tries_ to be polite."

"He's the only Cerberus agent that I can tolerate," Shepard agreed, "Later, I'm going to have a chat with Miranda. With my fists. I'd love to see her threaten you with a few teeth-"

It was Tali's turn to cut off Shepard, "No. She must have had her reasons, even if they probably weren't good ones. Seeing us together should be punishment enough for her."

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? I could easily put her in Medical for at least a week."

"Then we get in trouble with the Illusive Man."

"Dammit. You're right."

Tali giggled, "Look at that! I'm already keeping you out of trouble."

"I expect that you'll need to get used to that; it's probably going to be a common occurrence."

"A small price to pay for you." Tali shifted so that she was once again sitting beside him. They remained locked in each other's embrace for a while, quickly losing track of time as they enjoyed the beginning of something special.

In the back of her mind, Tali knew that the galaxy would recoil at the idea of Commander Shepard falling in love with a quarian. There would be plenty of people who would cheer them on, but their voices would be heavily outnumbered. A few minutes ago, this thought might have caused Tali to have a nervous breakdown. Now, though, it excited her; there was nothing that those people could do to stop them. As much as she wanted to jump into love, it was clear that John was inclined to take it slowly. And if that meant she could call him hers, Tali was perfectly willing to do it this way.

A lot of emotions had cycled through her mind in such a short amount of time, and she was certain that Shepard was still processing that fact. In fact, she hadn't fully processed it yet herself. But that was fine; they were both happy, and that was the important thing. It was somewhat humorous that they both managed to fumble their way to this point, neither of them being very skilled communicators in such situations. That was probably why Tali's mood had been so erratic; a near-total inability to articulate those feelings in any other way.

When Tali eventually left Shepard's cabin and went back down to Engineering, she felt like she could take on the entire galaxy. She was able to focus on her work much more easily without her anxiety eating away at her, and she performed even the most mundane tasks with a new enthusiasm. When her thoughts _did_ drift away from her work, they were far more pleasant. No longer did she have to constantly tell herself: " _Stop worrying about it and focus_." Now, she occasionally had to remind herself: " _There will be time to daydream later!_"

…

After their shift ended, Gabriella pulled Tali aside. "How did it go with Shepard?"

"What do you think?" Tali giggled, "I've never been happier!"

"That's awesome!" Gabby smiled, "Well, I have something I've been meaning to tell you. Apparently, Miranda was nasty to anyone she thought had a thing for Shepard. More than everyone else in the galaxy, that is. Anyway, I saw her give her little 'talk' to a couple of other people, and you know what? She was _particularly_ nasty to you. I think it's at least partially because you're the only alien that she saw as a threat, at least as far as I know."

Tali's mood changed from elated to cautiously curious. "How big was the difference?"

"A _lot_," Gabby placed a hand on her shoulder, "There's no way it was just prejudice, Tali. Miranda has something against you specifically. Now that you and Shepard are together, I don't know what she'll do." She leaned in, lowering her voice, "It might be a good idea to keep a weapon at your workstation, or maybe even keep it with you. But I never would have expected this kind of hostility from Miranda before; at this point, I wouldn't put anything past her."

Tali thanked her friend for the warning, then they both rode the elevator up to the crew quarters to turn in for the night. She hadn't paid much attention to it before, but now Tali was glad that Miranda slept elsewhere. Today seemed to be full of such observations. While part of her was nervous from Gabby's warning, Tali found herself oddly calm. Before, she knew that Miranda would face Shepard's wrath if she tried to hurt her. Now, though, the quarian felt safe in the knowledge that, should Miranda be foolish enough to try anything, Shepard would be out for blood.

Somehow, the thought of Shepard's violent nature comforted her.

* * *

**A/N: Howdy everyone! I'm about to hit you with a lot of talking, so if you want to skip the long-winded and emotional stuff, skip to the paragraph starting with "To recap."**

**Let me say first that I still fully intend on continuing Tali-path until completion. I said last time that it would take a while… but this took longer than I expected. And as much as I hate to say it: this is probably the new norm for Tali-path. I can't overstate how painful it is to do this to you all, but I want to be totally transparent so that everyone knows what's going on over on my end and why things are playing out the way they are.**

**I'm not proud of how long it took me to write this chapter. I know it sounds like I'm making excuses, but there's only so much that I can do. For me, writing is based on inspiration and motivation, and I haven't had the energy for much of either when it comes to Tali-path. Make no mistake; I _do_ still have moments of inspiration, and when I do, I make sure to harness it. But those moments seem few and far between nowadays. I write for fun, so if I'm not having fun writing a story, I don't try to write it. I do find Tali-path fun to write when I'm in the mood, but once again, that's a lot less often than I'd like. And I never find writing fun if I force myself to write. **

**If I force myself to write, I may get more chapters out sooner, yes, but the quality will drop steeply. And goodness knows that my quality isn't good enough to afford a hit like that. But beyond that, I also want to give you as the reader the best experience possible, which I can only really achieve by not forcing myself to write and waiting for those times when I'm motivated. What I'm saying is that things are super slow because I'd rather produce a few good chapters than a bunch of half-assed chapters in the same amount of time.**

**Of course, I expect that you already guessed this. The problem is that the aforementioned amount of time is… not favorable. It took two and a half months to get the last chapter out, and this one took even longer. And I hate that so much, since I said that wouldn't happen. Rest assured that I'm still not putting Tali-path on hiatus again, but I honestly can't realistically make promises as to timing anymore. It might be another two and a half months until the next chapter, or it may be more. I hate admitting that, but it's not fair for me to tell you anything but the truth.**

**I should also explain that my interests tend to come and go. I'm not as involved with Mass Effect as I was when I started this story, but that doesn't mean I've stopped liking it. I also predict that I'll eventually get hooked again, but I can't say when that will be. Honestly, if I was just writing this story for myself, I would probably abandon it. But I'm not; I have all of you who enjoy reading Tali-path, and it's your continued patience and enjoyment that I keep writing for. I don't want to let you down by jumping ship like that, even if I'm sailing against the wind. And like I said, I do still enjoy writing Tali-path, but _your_ enjoyment is what ensures that I'll never stop until it's done. **

**I have no idea how long these chapters will take anymore. And if you don't want to put up with multiple months of waiting between chapters, I won't blame you for leaving. I know how frustrating that can be, but I have to do this. Between sheer lack of energy, and constant anxiety that's caused by my own lack of personal care, my mental health has been on the decline. Which, in turn, further drains my energy and makes the problem worse. I'm not looking for anyone's pity; I haven't been taking care of myself, and that's no one's fault but mine. And it's my responsibility to fix it. My hope is that, by giving myself more time to write these chapters, I can relieve my anxiety and establish a proper workflow, then go back to tighter deadlines.**

**Once again: I am _not_ putting this story on hiatus again. I'm not making any time commitments because I care about Tali-path and all of you who read it, and I don't want to set myself up for failure by making promises that I can't keep. I'm sure that you can understand why it would destroy my mental health to repeatedly let you down like that. And if that happens, we start on that downward spiral again. I'm being so thorough in justifying this because I know that there are people out there who make claims like this just as an excuse to be lazy or avoid criticism, and I want to make it clear that I'm not doing that. It's my fault that I didn't take care of myself, meaning that I'm at fault for this story's lack of progress by extent. So by all means: you'd be justified in berating me for my lack of foresight and frustrating solution. The reason I say this is because _I_ would probably be quite irked in your position. **

**A couple of you have reached out to me about my radio silence, and I have yet to speak to anyone who wasn't polite and understanding. As of yet, no one has blamed me for anything or tried to put me down in any way. The fact that you all are so supportive of me despite my poor performance is more invigorating than you may realize.**

**To recap: Tali-path is absolutely _not_ going on another hiatus, but I'm not going to make promises as to how long each chapter will take. If you're annoyed or otherwise put off by that, I'll understand if you leave; I'd be frustrated, too. My lack of energy and motivation are my own fault, and I'm trying to turn that around. But most importantly, the reason that I'm still committed to Tali-path is all of you who put up with my bullshit and patiently wait after every update for me to figure my life out and give you the next one. That kindness deserves my dedication in return, and thus I shall provide. **

**Now back to business.**

**Feel free to leave a review or PM telling me what you thought of this chapter! I decided to retroactively describe Grunt's retrieval mission, since it felt too much like Jack's mission when I was writing it, and it felt too much like a fodder chapter: a lot of details with no real significance, with a few major ones that I put in the little recap. It wasn't the easiest decision to make, since I didn't know how much everyone would like it, but I decided to go ahead and do it, since I felt that people would rather have this than a chapter that doesn't serve much of a purpose.**

**Let me tell you, this chapter was a tough one! I had a lot of trouble figuring out just what exactly I wanted to happen, and how it would affect the story. I was also presented with the decision of approximately how many more chapters this story is going to have in respect to how many missions, etc. that I want to include as their own chapters. The mission recap at the beginning is a prime example of how I'm handling this. Though I must apologize for this chapter being so short, especially after such a long wait. I wrote most of it in one day (I was especially motivated) and at that point I realized that I was struggling to find ways to make it longer. So I decided to stop worrying about the chapter's length (this time) and just focus on what I wanted to put into it.**

**In the end, I remembered that this story was originally a request, and decided to work more towards that. Sadly, I'm discovering that my writing style doesn't really work well for including many of the details that the original request mentioned (Sorry, man!) but I still aim to incorporate as much as possible. I hope that I did a satisfactory job on Tali's confession and John's subsequent response; I wanted to add more emotion, which I'm not particularly good at, and I'm trying to save some stuff for the chapter(s) during and after her loyalty mission in order to make more sense in the context of the game. Personally, I think that the dialogue that the game provides is great, so I'm holding out a little until then. Of course, this course of action easily enables me to make some changes to these things! After all, what's the point of doing things this way if I just end up copying what happens in-game later? That's the beauty of fanfiction!**

**As always, have fun and stay safe out there! -VV**


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